Winner: ArtPrize 2012 was a 'big risk'

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Adonna Khare was overwhelmed when her piece "Elephants" was announced as the winner of ArtPrize 2012.

"Elephants," displayed at The Grand Rapids Art Museum, is a carbon-pencil drawing depicting elephants, chimpanzees, gorillas, giraffes, rabbits and various other animals. The piece begins on paper, but Khare extended the drawing onto the wall of the GRAM.

==Watch above: Khare walks you through the details of "Elephants."==

Khare had only one thing to say to the crowd at the old Grand Rapids Press building during the 4th Annual ArtPrize Awards: "Thank you."

Khare was emotional after the finale, wiping away tears as she spoke exclusively to 24 Hour News 8.

"I became an installation here," she said. "It was a big risk, leaving home."

She also had a slew of people to thank, from her family to the officials at the GRAM who allowed her to draw on the walls.

The piece will stay in the GRAM, Khare said later, after returning to the GRAM to see her piece.

"I'm okay with leaving it here," she said, adding that her art was almost like a diary and that she used it to deal with things happening in her life.

"This my way of getting it out there, and now I'm ready to move on and start something new," she said.

She said things she experienced in Grand Rapids were incorporated into "Elephants," which she added to repeatedly.

"I take what happens, even little things," she said. "Every day is inspiration."

==Photos: ArtPrize 2012 Finale==

Khare, from southern California, told 24 Hour News 8 she teaches art to kindergartners through 6th-graders.

"They're going to be so excited," she said.

Khare knows ArtPrize 2011 winner Mia Tavonatti, whose sister also competed in ArtPrize this year.

She said she's been putting off entering for a few years.

"The more I read about it, the more I wanted to do it," she said.

Khare will take home $200,000 as winner of ArtPrize 2012.

She said the first thing she's going to buy is a mattress.

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Inside woodtv.com:

Printable map: Juried category finalists (pdf)

Printable map: Locations of Top 10 finalists (pdf)

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