Folkways

The term ‘folkway’ refers to a learned behavior or custom, endemic to a certain community or region. I grew up in the suburbs of Dallas, but have chosen to make central Kansas my home. Small communities and rural culture in the Flint Hills offer very different perspectives on ways of being in the world than where I was raised. This series features various events, customs, and learned behaviors that I find unique or interesting about my adopted home.

“Fall Gathering in Matfield Green”
Acrylic, pastel, colored pencil on collaged paper. 36.75x41.75"

sun saturated greens and yellows, a backyard garden, big leaves in the foreground, woman working in the middle ground, a house in the distance — “Abundance”
Oil pastel on mylar paper. 35.75x37.75"

three figures sitting in the prairie looking away to a distant hill as the moon rises. a dog in the middle ground looks directly at you. — “Watching for Woodcock”
Acrylic, pastel, colored pencil on collaged paper. 38x44.5"

a person with a rake standing the in the background looking at her phone while a large, bright fire burns in the foreground — “Controlled Burn”
Watercolor and colored pencil on paper. 30x31.5”

“Survivor”
Watercolor and colored pencil on paper. 30x22”

double figure of a man in the foreground and middle ground removing a monarch butterfly from a net and letting it fly away. it's a bright, hot sunny day, compass plant encroaches on the trail — "Goodbye Chester, have fun in Mexico, I love you"
Acrylic, pastel, colored pencil on collaged paper. 43.5x38.5"

“Self-sufficiency?” Acrylic on canvas. 22x28”

colorful drawing of woman in athletic clothes waving a spider away with a stick on a forested walking path. showy partridge pea flower in the foreground — “Spider Stick”
Acrylic, pastel, colored pencil on collaged paper. 37.75x41"

looking up into the rafters of a wooden barn roof, a black rat snake is stalking a barn swallow nest. two swallows sit, alert, on a lamp cord — “Good Snake or Bad Snake?”
Acrylic on canvas. 27x40”

cool colors, gray sky, brittle and tall grasses. it's early morning in March. A tall mist net billowing in the breeze, attached to a metal poll takes up almost the whole frame — “Trap Happy: Mist Net”
Walnut ink, acrylic, charcoal and pencil on paper. 55x54"