As ArtPrize 2025 approaches, News 8 is checking in with some of last year's winners. In 2024, Keyon Lovett won a visibility award for 456: A Reflection on Fatherhood.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — After taking home an ArtPrize win for a piece centered around letters written to his dead father, a Flint-based artist says the prize has propelled his career forward.

Keyon Lovett — also known as The ArtSchool Dropout, a name inspired by his own experiences — lost his father when he was young. As Lovett and his wife were expecting a child of their own, he began creating 456: A Reflection on Fatherhood.

"Basically all my life, I've been kind of thinking about the 'ifs' of if my father was around," he told News 8. "And so when my wife was pregnant, that's kind of all I did was think about that.

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