So excited to be a part of this regional show that celebrates the beauty of Kansas Scenic Byways at the Birger Sandzen Gallery. My piece interprets the Post Rock Scenic Byway with an antique flour sack as the canvas and handmade stone paint with local slate and sandstone.

Very excited to have three pieces at the Strecker-Nelson-West Gallery show entitled Golden Valley-Endless Skyway opening this Friday, June 14 at 5:00 pm. If you are in the Manhattan, KS area, please come see all the amazing prairie landscapes. The show is up until August.

I’m so honored that Spirit of an Autumn Tree was selected for the 50th Annual Smoky Hill Art Exhibition in Hays. I have a special relationship with trees, because they are so uncommon here. I think Willa Cather described it best in her book My Antonia, “Trees were so rare in that country, and they had to make such a hard fight to grow, that we used to feel anxious about then, and visit them as if they were persons.” I imagine this tree as my Cottonwood spirit clothed in the fading cloak of late summer leaves, resolutely facing the coming wind that will usher in change.  It is acrylic with natural elements, including limestone, prairie soil and rainwater. The painting received the smoke of fallen leaves to symbolize change that comes to all deciduous trees. At such times, nature reminds us there is a time to let go.

Thank you everyone who came to the opening of OF THE EARTH at the gallery of the Hays Arts Council in Hays, Kansas. What an awesome evening displaying earthen art with ceramist Barbara Jo Stevens. The show is up through November.