 Grad emerged amid a period of intense artistic activity in Chicago in the early 1970s, alongside new gallery districts, critical voices, alternative art spaces, and the Chicago Imagists.She credits that time, and teachers like Yoshida, with sparking her interest in Outsider artists with a personal vision, such as Joseph Yoakum and Lee Godie, who continue to influence her.Grad incorporated those influences alongside modernists like Kandinsky, Paul Klee, George Braque, and Bay Area Painters such as David Park.