Elisha Frontz remembers when she and her husband discovered boxes upon boxes of spent lottery tickets at her father-in-law's home.
He bought them as he struggled secretly with a dementia-fueled gambling addiction.
Frontz, a Montgomery County-based artist, recently drew from this experience when she made a quilt from more than 170 of the lottery stubs, creating a piece titled "The House Always Wins."
Her work received “Best in Show” at the 2025 Ohio Arts Council’s Biennial Exhibition.
The quilt was selected out of nearly 2,000 entries by a panel of jurors.
WYSO’s Shay Frank spoke to the artist about the symbolism behind her award winning piece.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Elisha Frontz: If you were to walk into the gallery and experience the piece itself, from a distance it just looks like a quilt but then it's also very iridescent and shiny – And it's still hand-sewn, or stitched together, just like a traditional quilt.
"The House Always Wins," is constructed in a log cabin style pattern. And if you are familiar with quilts, then you know that each pattern has a bit of language to it, it's got symbolism. And that particular pattern is supposed to symbolize home and security and family.
Shay Frank: I want to dive deeper into that because I know, when we were looking into this, another reason that it came across my beat is I cover food insecurity. And that has to do with food systems, which are often tied into poverty – much like the theme for your piece.
Frontz: Unfortunately a couple of years ago we discovered that my father-in-law was having some pretty massive health issues and was showing signs of pretty severe dementia.
My husband looked into how to fix the bills that hadn't been paid and realized that there were hundreds of thousands of dollars missing from the accounts and when we dug a little deeper, we discovered that my father-in-law had had a really crippling gambling addiction.
We uncovered boxes upon boxes of lottery tickets, and it was really sickening. It was so traumatic to discover that all of the money that like we could have been using, or should be using to care for him, was gone.
Frank: I also wanted to ask you how you came to the name, "The House Always Wins?"
Frontz: Because of the log cabin pattern, really. I was thinking about home and, you know, and then suddenly like, oh, it's a home. It's a house. The House Always Wins, that’s such a good play on words.
Frank: Do you think it's important to use your work to comment on major issues like gambling and addiction?
Frontz: I think it's important to comment in any way you can on the points in life that you think are important. My specific language just happens to be visual arts and making – could be any form of artistic communication, and I think that that is super important for anyone.0
If you or someone you know is struggling with a gambling addiction, call 1(800) 589-9966.
Frank: So how much time did you spend creating this quilt?
Frontz: It took months to make the quilt and some of it was that there were a lot of emotional blocks– And as an artist, like when you uncover like really uncomfortable emotions and issues in your work, it makes it take longer, but it also like, you know in the back of your head, like, ‘Oh, this is going to really affect people and this is a direction that I should be going."
Frank: So, how many pieces in total are there in the whole series?
Frontz: I have three currently, I'm working on a fourth. The fourth is really quite large. It's gonna be probably about nine feet by nine feet.
Frank: Do you have any plans to enter into any other shows coming up?
Frontz: Actually, I have a piece of art that was just accepted into a show in Indianapolis and I plan to just try to keep growing and at least spark conversations in this particular series of work as far as I can take it.
I was really surprised that so many other people shared the same kind of story and that really said to me that this particular series of work is meaningful and could start a really great discussion with the community about what happens and why this happens.
Frank: So, you have an artist talk online coming up on Dec. 16?
Frontz: It starts at 11 a.m. I'm going to be talking about my life and how art has been a constant arc throughout my life. And then also the inspiration behind "The House Always Wins."
The display is up until Jan. 9, and it is at the Rife Gallery, which is in Columbus, right in the middle of downtown. But if you wanna come and see me, and I have all kinds of work in my studio, I do have a studio that is open to the public a couple of days a month at Front Street.
Frank: Thanks again, Elisha Frontz, for sharing your story and artwork with us here at WYSO.
