52 | SEPTEMBER 12 • 2024 
J
N

ARTS&LIFE
ART

H

untington Woods-based mixed media 
artist and Jewish community member 
Michelle Sider is returning to ArtPrize 
with two pieces of artwork that showcase Jewish 
themes and messages.
The Grand Rapids international art competition 
takes place annually and features artists across all 
mediums. Last year, Sider was a finalist, and this 
year she hopes her artwork will shed important 
light on growing antisemitism and the centuries-
long Jewish struggle to survive.
When ArtPrize begins Sept. 13, Sider’s work, 
“From Darkness to Light,” will be displayed in the 
light-filled atrium at Uccello’s in downtown Grand 
Rapids. It features two new glass mosaics, with 
each telling a unique story about Jewish life — and 
Sider’s own history.

‘BALANCING ACT’
This piece represents today’s complicated times. 
Dark skies and turbulent waters symbolize the 
looming threat of antisemitism as a stranger walks 
a tightrope over the void. Evoked by the events of 
Oct. 7, 2023, a day that will forever live in Jewish 
memory, Sider, whose son lives in Israel and fought 
in the army, faced a fear she had never known.
“My son was fighting terrorists, and it was 
overwhelming,” she says. Meanwhile, her other 
son was experiencing campus antisemitism. It was 
a life she never imagined possible for her kids. 
“Something broke open in me. As a mom, it was 
too much.”
Sider, 64, turned to the canvas to navigate her 
emotions. “My world was upside down,” she 
explains. “I felt like there were storms around me 
and the sands were moving underneath me.”
It’s this feeling that inspired “Balancing Act,” 
a painted and glass mosaic that portrays the 
sensation of trying to stay balanced on a tightrope, 
or lifeline. “This piece also captures glimpses 
of light, so there’s a lot of texture,” says Sider, 
who is known for creating this particular paint-
and-glass combination. “I think it’s the most 
autobiographical piece I’ve ever done in glass.”

‘ANNA’
Complementing “Balancing Act” is a second 
piece, “
Anna,” which is modeled after an original 
photograph of Sider’s great-grandmother, Anna 
Gurovsky, who left Russia in search of a better life.
Taken in 1909 just before escaping the Jewish 
pogroms of Odessa, the photograph is Gurovksy’s 
final glimpse of life in the former Russian Empire. 

One year later, she was granted passage on a boat 
to Romania as a wedding gift, and from there she 
made her way to Canada.
“
Anna,” Sider says, is the calm strength that 
counteracts the turbulent message of “Balancing 
Act.”
“I had a great relationship with my great-
grandmother,” Sider explains. “She was a sweet, 
loving, wonderful woman who taught me how to 
make grilled cheese sandwiches and apple strudel.”
Yet, behind the grandmotherly feel, was a 
courageous woman that Sider looked to as a role 
model.

At age 12, Gurovsky ran away from home to 
escape a cruel stepmom — a story Sider says is 
not unlike that of Cinderella. She went to live 
with a poet brother who wrote about the pogroms 
in Odessa. When he was arrested as a dissident, 
Gurovsky would visit him in jail and smuggle 
out his poetry writings in her bloomers. For that 
reason, Sider turned Gurovsky’s skirt into a mosaic.
Glimpses of Leon Trotsky’s writings can be 
seen in the backdrop of “
Anna,” and the clouds 
are reminiscent of the photo studio backdrop 
seen in the original 1909 photo of Sider’s great-
grandmother.

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY 
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
 ‘From 
Darkness 
 to Light’

2023 ArtPrize finalist 
2023 ArtPrize finalist 

Michelle Sider pays homage 
Michelle Sider pays homage 
to her Jewish heritage and 
to her Jewish heritage and 

the events of Oct. 7.
the events of Oct. 7.

Michelle 
Sider