13 Panels a week

Published 19 days ago • 1 min read

There is a number that lives in my head right now.

13.

That's how many Weave of Life panels I need to make every week between now and September 12th, when I install approximately 300 panels at Monroe Community Church in Grand Rapids for ArtPrize 2026.

I'm doing the math in the living room.

Our house is being renovated, so Charlie and I are temporarily in an apartment. The encaustic painting table is next to the Glowforge, which is next to Charlie's desk and the couch. Materials are stacked along the walls. Huxtable, my studio dog, rotates between the couch and 2 dog beds in the appartment (not spoiled at all)

It's not the studio I imagined making this work in. But it's where the work is getting made.

13 panels a week sounds like a production goal. And it is. But it's also something else — a weekly act of commitment to a project that has been growing for years and is about to take its biggest public step yet.

Each panel starts with a substrate — reclaimed materials gathered from life and Zero Landfill Day events. Old invitations, newspapers, fabric samples, carpet tiles, things that tend to be discarded. Encaustic wax goes on in layers, built up and fused with heat. Some panels come together in an hour. Some take three days and a decision to start over.

The 80/20 rule I'm working by right now: 80% simpler panels that move quickly, 20% more complex pieces that carry more visual weight in the installation. That ratio is what makes 8.6 a week possible without burning out.

What keeps me going isn't the number. It's knowing what the panels become when they're together — an expanding Flower of Life pattern, each piece a part of something larger than itself.

300 of them, on the wall of a church in Grand Rapids, in September.

That's what 13 a week is for.

Weave of Life opens at ArtPrize 2026 at Monroe Community Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan — September 18 through October 3. The artists' welcome reception is September 16, 4–7pm. I hope to see you there.

To follow the project as it develops, subscribe below. To inquire about the work, reach out at nancy@nancyfritzart.com

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