Transitions

I painted this piece specifically as my submission for the juried, 2021 Symphony in the Flint Hills Art Exhibit and Auction. This year's theme is about the Sante Fe Trail as it cut through the Flint Hills of Kansas. 

If excepted the starting bid will be $700

Accepted artwork will be on display in Cottonwood Falls SFH Gallery starting on May 1st, with an open house event.

The auction and Symphony Event will be held in Morris County on June 12, 2021 https://symphonyintheflinthills.org/

Here I envisioned the transition which took place as the new Americans began their migration and habitation of the land. Those who previously called the area home watched, yet unaware of what this migration would mean to their home.  

I have mixed feelings as I consider all this. Obviously all of us who call this area home are tied directly or in directly to this transition. I am first generation American, but live in an old limestone house built in the 1860's by a homesteader. I often try to imagine our land as it was back then, and wonder who walked the prairie and crossed the creeks before me.  It really has not been that many years ago and as I reflect too deeply, it frightens me at all the development and loss of the prairie that has happened since then, and even in the 32  years we have been here. What will it look like in another decade, or dare I think century?  Will we leave our corner of the earth in better condition than we found it? I can only hope we can be good stewards of this precious gift.