Summer, 2006 Issue

The Art of Rural Lives

Artist Marilyn Hake finds inspiration for her pencil illustrations in her rural roots and her picturesque setting nestled in the rolling Blue Hills near Tipton, Kansas. “I am blessed with a peaceful location that’s quiet and I can just do work,” Marilyn says. “I get inspiration from being in a rural area and people like the rural-themed art for a variety of reasons.”

Weaving Her Way

Sally Brandon enjoys fiber. Not the dietary kind but the fiber art that produces items such as scarves, hats and sweaters. This love for fiber started back in 1988 when Brandon made a trip to Finland as a 4-H exchange student.  “I learned to weave in the weaving cottages, where each little town had their cottage with weaving equipment set-up so everyone could weave whatever they wanted,” Brandon says.

An English Country Girl in Kansas

An English country girl, arriving in Goodland, Kansas, at the age of 20 was quite an awakening to life beyond Europe. I only ever could see the horizon looking out to sea. Here there was no sea, no volume of water of any kind, yet the skyline surrounded me for the first time in my life.

Gatherings on the Prairie

Rob Dudley often wondered about people who just one day walked away from seemingly great jobs with no real plans in place. Then one day he woke up and became one of those people.

Tallgrass Prairie

As Lewis and Clark made their way up the Missouri River in 1804, they came upon an unexpected discovery.  In the Northeast corner of Kansas they took a left turn up a smaller, yet mighty river later to be named the Kaw. What they did not anticipate was the end of the deciduous forest and the beginning of the tallgrass prairie. 

Screech!!

An owl from Ackert Hall, Kansas State University...