By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Two area artists will bring nature to art lovers during the exhibit of “Of the Earth,” which opens tonight at the Hays Arts Center.

Russell artist Angela Muller will exhibit her abstract canvas pieces made from materials from the Kansas prairie. Ellsworth artist Barbara Jo Stevens creates natural form ceramic vessels that are mounted on found wood.

Angela Muller

Muller said the materials that go into her art are more important than the images themselves.

“All my paintings are very structural and sculptural,” she said. “They all start out with a very thick texture, which is ground stone, mostly marble and then I add limestone and soil to it so those earth elements are embedded in the texture.”

As she builds the painting, she adds earthen elements from around the world, but many from the Kansas prairie. This includes top soil, limestone, sandstone, gypsum and flint. She grinds the local stone with a mortar and pestle. She uses rain water mixed with acrylic paint for her pigment.

“I also like to smudge the paintings with cedar and grasses from the earth, so the spirit of those plants also go into the paintings,” she said. “Then the last earth element I often use is grass — prairie grass. I will often go out and cut that by hand and use that in the texture of the paintings so the appearance of the grass is in the texture.”

She also collects wheat kernels after harvest and incorporates those into the texture of her paintings.

“I think if you look at the grassland we live in, some of the harshest conditions are found on the prairie,” she said. “We have extreme drought and extreme temperature variations, very hot, very cold, strong winds. It is very tough for nature to thrive here, but despite those things, nature does thrive and survive.

“I think looking at the examples of nature gives us hope and examples of how we can thrive and prosper here too.”

She said her goal is to layer as many parts of the prairie into to her paintings so the essence of the plains shines through.

Muller grew up in Russell, but moved away and lived on the East Coast for 17 years.

“I had a real visceral disconnection from the earth,” she said. “It bothered me because I couldn’t see the storms coming and see the sun setting on the horizon. There was a real disconnect, so when I moved back to Kansas eight years ago, I kind of saw the prairie with a new set of eyes.

“I saw there were great teachers in thunderstorms and cold moons and cottonwoods with spring in the breeze. And I wanted to paint that and capture that essence.”

Muller said she feels people in Kansas are connected to the earth in ways others aren’t.

“Because we live and depend on the earth here,” she said, “I think we have a special connection to it, and that certainly speaks for me. Kansas and growing up on the prairie makes us appreciate the earth and be closer to it.”

Barbara Jo Stevens

Stevens gleaned inspiration from Native American pottery, yet she said her artwork is an original reflection of her own soul.

Stevens was the head of the Cloud County Community College Art Department. When she taught Art Appreciation, she would bring in a shard of Native American pottery.

“I would ask the student to hold it and really and feel and look at it and not just take it and pass it to the next person, because it was 1,000 years old,” she said. “It is amazing to me that clay survives everything that the elements and people give it. It may get cracked or broken, but it survives.”

Stevens of Downs said she always felt like she was connected to those ancient women who made the pottery.

“Ancient pottery was made by mothers and wives, doing what they could to take care of their families every day. That’s who I am,” she said. “Here 1,000 years later, here is another women of the same spirit, the same creative abilities, doing the same thing. That just fascinated me. With all our modern technology, there is such a connection, and I think it comes out in my work.”

Stevens’ pieces are hand-built instead of thrown on a wheel. This allows here to create vessels with very thin walls, which gives the impression of the pieces being very fragile, just as our lives are tenuous.

“Last of all, I hope there is a spirit there,” she said, “from what I am feeling when I make the piece that some of that stays with it. And when people come in and see it, they can feel some of that personality as well as my spirituality that goes into the pot.”

Most of Stevens’ vessels are mounted on pieces of wood. Since she was a girl she enjoyed walking among the hedge trees her grandfather planted to harvest for fence posts.

“I found out in the third grade that it wasn’t even a woods and burst into tears in the middle of class. I was so sure my daddy had a magical forest for me,” she giggled.

The wood mountings harkened back to the treasures she picked up when she went on walks in her woods. As her friends and family learned she was collecting found wood for art pieces, it became a community project.

“Somewhere along the line that evolved not consciously, I don’t believe, but it evolved into trying to make them look like you are on a walk in the woods and you just stumble across this treasure that has become a part of the forest,” Stevens said.

Stevens said she hoped her pieces will help exhibit-goers connect to the prairie.

“I want them to feel there is a connection with God, a connection with God’s good Earth and with people of the past … with the ancient ones. I want them to remember there is something more in this world than just the material things, and I hope my pieces bring about that feeling and gives them a sense of calm and peace,” she said.

The opening reception for “Of the Earth” will be 7 to 9 tonight at the Hays Arts Center. It will be preceded by a members-only HAC annual meeting at 6:30 p.m.

“Of the Earth” will be on display at the HAC through Nov. 27.

In addition to the opening of “Of the Earth,” Friday, the HAC will also host a book signing for “Pegasus Dan and the Little Owl” written by Hays artist Nicole Thibodeau and illustrated by Robert Joy.

Thibodeau received her BA in Studio Art from Bethany College in Lindsborg and her MFA from Fort Hays State University.