East Lansing artist Kristin Pennock won the public vote at ArtPrize for her 216-foot accordion-style sketchbook that catalogued everything she ate for a year. (Courtesy of Robert Pennock)

East Lansing Artist Turned Everyday Meals Into an Award-Winning Work of Art

East Lansing artist Kristin Pennock’s year-long venture of drawing everything she ate began as a tool to grapple with disappointing food allergies. It ended up winning her $100,000 in a contest that featured artists from all around the globe.

Pennock’s more than 200-foot-long accordion-style sketch book also serves as a sort of food diary that brings back memories. One her favorite meals catalogued was eating a banana in an Austrian hat shop.

Inside the shop, employees Lisa and Uta were making wool hats for the town band of Haiming, Austria. Having just visited the town, Pennock showed them her sketchbook, including what she ate during her visit. Enamored by the project, the employees asked if she would draw something they gave her. The two rushed off to the break room and returned with an orange and a banana. 

“I picked the banana because it’s my favorite thing to draw,” Pennock said with a smile. “I was part of the shop, greeting people as they came in, and just sitting there for 45 [minutes] to an hour chatting and drawing.” 

A sketch of a banana Kristin Pennock ate in an Austrian hat shop. (Courtesy of Kristin Pennock)

Pennock was diagnosed with food allergies years ago and her doctors instructed her to document everything she ate for weeks. Speaking on a call with East Lansing Info, Pennock explained that after spending her career as an architect, she thought drawing her food would be far more satisfying than simply making lists. In 2024, she challenged herself to draw her meals for a year to encourage personal accountability and push herself to eat a wide diversity of food. Pennock ended the year with a 216-foot-long accordion-style ink and watercolor sketch diary. She later submitted the piece to ArtPrize 2026 and won the public vote, receiving a grand prize of $100,000, for her piece titled “Sketchdiet: A Year of Drawing Everything I Ate.”

“I think it’s such an honor that [so] many people felt moved to vote for me,” she said. 

Eating became difficult for Pennock, especially at restaurants. Drawing her meals not only allowed her to find joy in what was left, but it also served as an artistic outlet. She has always enjoyed art, which is why she chose to do architecture professionally as it combines her passion for art with documenting urban life. 

 “There’s a lot of meaning in everyday life,” Pennock said. “In the details around us while we eat, even the shapes of our cups, the tables, who we’re eating with … I think that is all part of art too.” 

Before 2024, she sketched her meals here and there in regular sketchbooks, but it was harder to tell a story with continuity because interesting things could be happening in the background, she said. With the help of her neighbor, Fred Fitz, she used mixed-media paper to create 24-foot-long sketchbooks that could be folded to fit in her bag. 

Pennock kept the sketchbook with her at all times so she could draw each meal before eating. She joked, “It was a full year of cold food,” adding that she got faster at drawing because she would be hungry.  

Some of the sketches in Kristin Pennock’s 216-foot-long sketchbook that catalogued her meals for a year. (Courtesy of Kristin Pennock)

But it was not just about the food, it was capturing and documenting the moment she was in. 2024 was a busy year for Pennock with her children graduating, traveling with her husband and caring for family members. Drawing her meals became a way to take time for herself because it was tied to an essential life function. 

“It was sort of non-negotiable that whatever else was going on in my life, the consistent thing was that I was drawing my food and what was going on around me,” Pennock said. 

This experience helped her take better care of herself by being honest about what and how she ate, without attaching judgment to it. Additionally, she said it helped her eat a wider color range because she wanted to see colors on the page. 

“Sometimes I would eat things just because I would want to put them in the sketchbook,” Pennock said. 

The overwhelmingly positive response at ArtPrize was unexpected, she said, adding that people found connections through the piece whether they recognized a local business in the background, searched for what she ate on their birthday, or got excited to see their own culture’s food documented and translated. She realized just how much the piece resonated when she overheard a student say, ‘My German teacher says he’ll give us extra credit if we get a picture of some of the German from this [Sketchdiet] piece.’

“That was fun to see,” she said. “People were finding so many different things in the piece that I hadn’t expected.”

When asked how she would spend her winnings, Pennock said she plans to use it to help support her future artistic endeavors. 

“I had not been going in to win,” Pennock said. “I had been going in to finally get my art out there and to just share this project that I had.”