Statement:

For the past thirty five years I’ve lived on the edge of the prairie. Arriving to Kansas City, the vastness of the sky as it spreads over the endless horizon impressed me first. Coming from a large city in Europe, the big sky, the unbroken horizon, and wide fields of grass are all foreign phenomena to me. After many years of habituation, I had the opportunity to experience this landscape directly during two different residencies.

As a process-oriented artist who experiments with materials available in the place I inhabit, I gathered visual and material knowledge from the Prairie. The landscape not only gave inspiration for this exhibit, but provided materials to make art with. Most directly the light, which created the images in my pinhole cameras, and activated the shadows of plants with cyanotype. The land provided rocks to make pigment from and fallen trees were used for woodblock printing.

I am grateful to the Tallgrass Artist residency in Matfield Green, KS and the Mother’s Milk Residency in Newton, KS for giving me the freedom to explore and the space to be inspired by the Land.

I am thankful to the ArtsKC organization for granting me an Inspiration grant making this exhibit possible.