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In the heart of the Flint Hills: local, national and international contemporary art mostly inspired by, or created from, the tallgrass prairie.

Featured artists

Contemporary artists represented by The Gallery at Pioneer Bluffs:

Amber Archer (Abiquiu, NM) non-traditional raku pottery
Suseela Gorter (Velp, the Netherlands) flat flower photography
William McBride (Matfield Green, KS) sculptures
Jan Gjaltema (Chihuahua, Mexico) jewelry designs
Julie Wagner (El Rito, NM) paintings, sculptures, works on paper
Antonia “Ans” Zoutenbier (Matfield Green, KS) contemporary tin designs
Anne Ausloos (Antwerp, Belgium) installations
Elaine Shea Jones (Matfield Green, KS) photography
and more.

Above: The Gallery at Pioneer Bluffs, in a four-room art space, and on the lawns surrounding the ranch house, each year 6 solo exhibitions will be presented. During the gallery season (late March through December), artists talks, performances, and art classes will be organized.

Artists

Represented artists

Solo exhibitions

Artists in residence

Permanently represented artists

Amber Archer
Anne Ausloos
Jan Gjaltema
Suseela Gorter
Lisa Grossman
William McBride
Elaine Shea Jones
Julie Wagner
Antonia Zoutenbier

Amber Archer
non-traditional raku pottery

Amber Archer’s work is influenced by growing up in northern New Mexico. Her designs evolved from working with architectural ceramicist Shel Neymark for 13 years. Pottery is a form of a meditation for Amber. Her work expresses an ongoing interest in exploring color and sound correlations and the effects they produce.

While traditional raku colors are usually subdued, earthy or metallic, Amber’s are unusually bright and bold, reflecting vivid contrasts of the southwestern landscape she loves. The crackled surface of the pieces lends an appearance of age to the contemporary and elegant forms. Amber’s work gained fame and popularity not just in New Mexico but all over the U.S.

go to Amber Archer gallery

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Anne Ausloos
soil installations

While Anne Ausloos from Antwerp, Belgium visited the Flint Hills in the summer of 2010, she created a special project for Pioneer Bluffs: Flint Hills Soil In Progress.

flint hills soil in progress
In each of four glass vessels, soil (earth, clay, dirt) including the official Kansas State soil “Harney silt loam” is brought to suspension. The soil was collected from an area excavated for Highway 150 which presents four, sometimes five, different layers of Flint Hills soil.

In a relatively short period when compared to geological time, Flint Hills Soil In Progress makes visible a different stratification in each vessel. The organization as a result of the stratification, and the dissection of the soil into different colors, are what has special attention. Visual research being the goal, photography and video will record the process, which may take many years.

Says Anne: “Life enters the vessels gradually. I am observing this process in close up, yet at the same time a macro observation is allowed. The Flint Hills landscape is portrayed in all its intriguing beauty, in its bare essence”.

The name Harney, meaning “people”, is adopted from “harahey”, an ancient Wichita Indian term for Pawnee Indians.

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Jan Gjaltema
jewelry designs

Jan Gjaltema received his Masters Degree in Architecture from Delft University. He won a national contest for a new urban design of Rotterdam inner city in the Netherlands. Jan worked for acclaimed architect Rem Koolhaas in New York in the days Koolhaas wrote his now famous book “Delirious New York”.

While working as an architect, Jan began to create glass and iron sculpture as well as furniture. For the past 12 years, he concentrated on the design of unique jewelry, with a new collection coming out each year. His mostly silver creations are handcrafted, none are cast. He works with inlays of abalone and resin as well as precious stones. Many of his designs are oxidized.

go to Jan Gjaltema gallery

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Suseela Gorter
“flat flowers” photography

A young Dutch photographer and designer educated at the Arnhem Art Academy, Suseela Gorter invented Flat Flowers, or as some say, “forever flowers.” Her photographs of colorful bouquets in well-chosen vases are transformed to transparent window stickers made of static material that can be easily removed and placed in new locations if wanted. The flowers are visible from inside the house as well as from the outside.

Some of Suseela’s flat flowers come in large formats, others as gift cards. Two of her designs were commissioned by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Now it is possible to have Van Gogh’s world-famous “Sun Flowers” in everyone’s window! Suseela designed book and magazine covers as well as interiors for stores using her photography to cover entire walls.

go to Suseela Gorter gallery

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William McBride
multi media sculptures, drawings

A sculptor, architect, and naturalist, William McBride in 2006 left Chicago to be “close to the land” in the heart of the Flint Hills of Kansas. He and his family live in a “green” residence steps away from the Santa Fe Rail Road bunkhouse (1924) they restored. Originally from Ohio, Bill studied at Harvard (Graduate School of Design). He received a Fredrick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship and worked in Stockholm, Sweden before making a career as an architect. In 1980 he co-founded McBride Kelley Baurer Architects in Chicago.

Bill’s sculpture is inspired by the rich visual and spiritual dimensions of the tallgrass prairie. Like the acclaimed British artist Andy Goldsworthy he uses found objects, stones, bones, leaves to create his multi media sculpture. His “Bone and Feather Mask” (1994) won first prize in Art by Architects.

“Hey-diddle-diddle” (1999) is one of the “Chicago Cows On Parade” and is located at the Wrigley Building. Bill is one of the founding fathers of Pioneer Bluffs Foundation.

go to William McBride gallery

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Elaine Shea Jones
photography

The photographs of Elaine Shea Jones are a culmination of a lifetime devoted to art, beauty and nature. “Seeing the world through the long lens of a camera has given me a glimpse of the infinite beauty of this place we call home. My life has been enriched beyond measure.” Elaine was one of the first photographers to discover the unique beauty of the tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills. She started coming to Matfield Green in the 1970s. Her prairie images were used in many books and film documentaries, such as “Return to PrairyErth” with William Least Heat-Moon, and Jacques Cousteau’s “Rivers of the World”. Her work includes series of portraits of the people of Chase County.

Her deep attraction to the prairie led to Elaine’s work as Executive Director of Save the Tallgrass Prairie and, later, as Director of The Grassland Heritage Foundation. Elaine used her images of the prairie to raise awareness of the ecological treasures of Kansas. She was awarded the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Quality Award, and was appointed as a member of the Kansas Advisory Commission on Environment.

go to Elaine Shea Jones gallery

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Julie Wagner
paintings, sculptures, work on paper

Julie Wagner grew up roaming the woods of the northeast, collecting bugs, leaves and flowers. “I have always loved drawing what I see on my walks and translating them to my art works. I still often return home with wasp’s or bird’s nests, seed pods, abandoned shells of cicadas or other bugs. Then, in my studio, I make paper sculpture and artist’s books using my drawings, images of natural forms, scientific diagrams, and maps. I do oil transfer drawings on handmade Japanese paper, tear the pages into small pieces, which I then glue up to make vessel forms and book pages. I am exploring metamorphosis, patterns of growth and decay, and ‘maps’ of the natural world.”

Julie gets her inspiration from the prairie as well as the desert. She was born in Wisconsin and grew up on the east coast. After earning a BA in Studio Art from Oberlin College and a MFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design, she worked in New York City for 5 years.

Julie moved to northern New Mexico in 1972. Her work is in private and public collections in the United States and Europe.

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Antonia (Ans) Zoutenbier
tin designs

Antonia (Ans) Zoutenbier is the dedicated art loving proprietor of The Gallery at Pioneer Bluffs. Ans owned and managed The Tin Moon Studio / Gallery in Abiquiu, NM for more than 12 years. Before that, she was involved in the organization of exhibitions of contemporary art and sculpture in The Hague, the Netherlands, where she also organized a now famous poetry festival.

Ans became an artist herself when she followed a course of traditional New Mexico tinwork in El Rito, NM. She continued to do tin designs using the old and established technique, but chose to leave the traditional approach to the Hispanics masters and to create contemporary designs instead. She still does, but now lives and works in Matfield Green, KS.

go to Antonia Zoutenbier gallery

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Solo exhibitions

Julie Wagner - fall 2010
Bill McBride - spring 2011

Elaine Shea Jones - spring 2011

Zak Barnes - summer 2011

Lisa Grossman - summer 2011

Mike Edge & Toshi Miki - fall 2011

Gary and Gretchen Gackstatter - fall 2011

Julie Wagner
“Earth Song”

September 18 – December 31, 2010

Julie Wagner’s work is informed by the cycles of nature. “I work with flux in nature. Growth cycles. Erosion cycles. Not only am I interested in the earth and the air, but also what is under the earth. It’s all part of the same.”

Wagner is sensitive to the energies of the landscape, to the above and the below. This has been part of her awareness since she can remember. Walks in the woods with her mother as a child, naming plants, animals, birds, and gardening with her “suburban farmer”-father set an early connection to the natural world. At her house in El Rito the long view extends to the vast New Mexico sky and distant ridges. Through the year, changes in the outer landscape are vividly apparent.

“My work is based on observations and images of natural forms, and on maps, diagrams, and scientific drawings. I am interested in the dynamics and processes of nature in both the short and long term.” Wagner keeps a working journal, usually in one of her handmade books, for notes, quotes, realistic drawings, ideas, lists of supplies to buy, copies of diagrams, maps. The journal “is the place where I download my literal brain. I try not to carry the literal to finished pieces. I don’t want the viewer to be encumbered by the literal stuff. I want my work to be simple and clear. Most of my work starts with a concept, but then the art takes over and dictates the direction. I never let the conceptual override the ideas that arise while working. The concept is the structure, not the finished piece.”

Wagner is interested in exploring various views of her subjects. “I usually take an idea, as, for example the ground beneath my feet when observed up close. I then combine this with a view of the world in geologic terms, and explore it in a series of works.” She studies geology textbooks, reads about fossils and prehistory and has a collection of field guides to refer to. She looks at maps and takes walks around the land with or without her camera. She considers the long view, the changes that occur over millennia, the view from the air and the view from right at her feet. Eventually, all of this gets condensed into a painting, or book, or sculpture - which one depends on which seems the most suitable vehicle for the idea.

Wagner’s aim is to create a dense surface which functions as both a micro and a macro view of the world. She is not interested in recreating a realistic view of the world as much as in creating something that takes on a life and form of its own. She works intuitively to discover what the idea that is nagging her has to say. When she does a painting or make a sculpture, it talks back to her. She discovers things. She feels an obligation to work to make concrete what exists only as a hint of an idea in her mind. “The results never fail to surprise and delight me and hopefully, other people as well. I would love for people to see my art and then want to look down and see what is under their feet. I am very interested in helping widen the view of how we look at the world we live in.”

Her sustained interest in nature, visible and invisible, is apparent in the work she is doing for the show in The Gallery at Pioneer Bluffs. “I am having a dialog with a place I know well - northern New Mexico - and a place I love but don’t know well - the (tallgrass) prairie. I am interested in what you see when you walk on the earth and what’s under there and how to relate to it. How the climate and location affected it. The geology underlying it all - it’s a huge thing, the Rocky Mountains uplift, in New Mexico as well as Kansas, and it goes under both places.”

Wagner is versatile in her use of materials to paint with - acrylic paint, watercolor, ink and oil transfer drawings, together or alone - and the end forms of her art - paintings, sculpture and artist books. Her intention is to layer drawings and color to create a surface with many images, obscured by and revealed by each other. For the Pioneer Bluffs show she created two series of paintings: Square Dance and Square Mile, both using acrylic on Claybord. Past themes reveal themselves marks, maps, grids, micro, macro yet each piece is fresh. From a distance, Square Dance II looks like a depiction of far galaxies. Closer, the impression of an ant hill emerges. Wagner has playfully taken the painting to the sides where little dark creatures are shown navigating tunnels of earthly browns. In Square Mile I, circles and marks could be maps, tree rings, cells, inner and outer. The marks appear loose and precise at the same time. This could be earth forms or otherworldly. Wagner avoids imposing on the viewers eye. Just as she is surprised by what wants to be expressed, so does she leave room for each person to respond uniquely.

When asked what moves her to make art, she says, “I think art expands the world a little bit. It adds to the supply of wonder in the world. Any art does this as long as it is done with some wonder and excitement. I would be doing this even if I had no shows or sales because I am fascinated with it. There are moments of revelation, when I realize I’ve done exactly what I needed to do. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. My work isn’t easy for people, but I think my intent is.”

After earning a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design, Wagner lived in New York before moving to northern New Mexico. She has made sculpture, paintings and one-of-a-kind or small-series books.

Selected solo exhibitions
LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
Mindscape Adornments, Evanston, IL
Worth Gallery, Taos, NM

Selected museum exhibitions
Asto Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
The Palace of the Governors, Santa Fe, NM
The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO
Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR Southern Ohio Museum of Art, Portsmouth, OH
Craft Alliance, St. Louis, MO
State Capitol Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

go to Julie Wagner gallery

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Bill McBride
“Focusing on the Forms of Nature”

March 25 – June 28, 2011

Bill McBride is a sculptor and naturalist living in the Flint Hills of Kansas. He has no heavy statement of intent; his artworks are simple totems expressing amazement and joy of existence in nature. They are derived from emotion rather than intellect, and from instinct rather that principle. His work welcomes viewers to relax, have fun, and feel at home in the world.

Created from both natural and man-made objects of the tallgrass prairie, his work resonates with the beauty and mystery of the relationship between nature and human creativity. His studio is filled with odd, sometimes mysterious, and seemingly discordant objects discovered in his explorations in the tallgrass prairie – bones, sticks, stones, wire, rusted metal. He brings these objects together creating new, unexpected, and intensely beautiful forms.

McBride collaborates with his materials rather that manipulating them in the interest of beauty. His creativity lies in understanding the primal and evocative character of his materials and assembling them as new forms.
His art reminds us of our place in the universe and witnesses the unity of creativity and nature. “The act of creating art makes me feel ‘at home’ with nature and allows me to express the wonder of our inclusion in the grand scheme of the universe.”

McBride’s artwork is primal in spirit and primitive in construction. He connects objects as simply and directly as possible just as distant ancestors would have. “Using my hands allows me to get to know the objects I am working with.”

McBride grew up in Ohio with a love of nature and instinctive interest in sculpture. These interests never abated in his formative years at Harvard College, Harvard Graduate School of Design, and in Stockholm, Sweden as a Harvard University Sheldon Fellow. Yet, expectations and training led to a professional life as an architect rather than a sculptor. In 1980, he founded the Chicago-based architectural firm of McBride Kelley Baurer, which over the years was successful in a diverse practice – from churches to commercial buildings; schools and private homes; urban design projects; and historic projects such as restoration of the Wrigley Building. The firm’s mission is “to embrace the power of design to create places that serve people, delight the senses, and celebrate our bonds to the earth and to each other.” This statement reflects McBride’s core values as a sculptor – creativity, visual delight, and the unity of man and nature.

During his years as an architect he maintained an interest in sculpture winning first place in the Chicago American Institute of Architects’ Art By Architects competition in 1995; and with numerous works donated to charity auctions, most notably, ‘Hey Diddle Diddle’, the wildly popular cow jumping over the moon, at the Wrigley Building, for Cows on Parade in 1999. In Chicago McBride also pursued environmental interests as a long-term board member of Friends of the Chicago River and co-founder of Riverbank Neighbors, a successful grass-roots effort to restore native habitat and welcome people to five blocks of riverbank on the City’s northwest side.

In 2004, McBride followed his instincts and moved with his family from Chicago to Matfield Green, Kansas to be a sculptor and to live surrounded by tallgrass prairie.

go to William McBride gallery

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Elaine Shea Jones
“This Beautiful Place Called Home”

March 26 – June 28, 2011

The photographs of Elaine Shea Jones are a culmination of a lifetime devoted to art, beauty and nature. “Seeing the world through the long lens of a camera has given me a glimpse of the infinite beauty of this place we call home. My life has been enriched beyond measure.”

When she was twelve, Elaine’s father made a darkroom in the basement of their home where Elaine began to see the effects of light, contrast and composition. The camera became an extension of her eye at that young age and has continued to be so through the years. “As a girl, growing up in Ithaca, New York, I spent most of my time climbing trees, swimming, and being outdoors with my parents. My mother was a painter and my father had a deep reverence for nature. He taught me the ways of Indians, the Cayugas and Senecas. We admired the iridescent feathers of a pheasant he was cleaning for our dinner, the patterns in tree bark, the lichen on rocks.”

In those early years her work reflected the subjects that fascinated most young girls: horses and friends. “When I returned to Ithaca for my 50th high school reunion, I visited the new Cornell stables and arena. To my delight the two photos of the 1947 polo team that I took with my little Brownie camera and developed myself when I was 12 were hanging on the wall of the trophy room.”

Much later, landscape photography came into play. “When I saw for the first time the gentle beauty of the Flint Hills, it literally took my breath away.” That deep attraction led to her work as Executive Director of Save the Tallgrass Prairie and, later, as Director of The Grassland Heritage Foundation. Elaine used her images of the prairie to raise awareness of the ecological treasures of Kansas.

Her prairie photographs appeared in books and magazine articles supporting the preservation effort. As a U.S. Delegate to the International Working Conference on New Directions for Conservation of Parks, at the Luneburger Heide, (West) Germany in 1983, her audio/visual program brought a surprise reaction. The conference chairman said, in his introduction, “We have a keen interest in seeing the preservation of the tallgrass prairie because, remember, is was our people, the Dutch, the Austrians, the Swedes, the Germans, who first crossed and settled your prairie. Our ancestors!” This expanded worldview inspired Elaine’s efforts in prairie preservation and the vitality of small prairie towns and communities. She continues to make this her life’s work.

The audio/video was selected by the National Parks and Conservation Association and The Garden Clubs of America for national distribution. Her work was selected as part of the permanent display in the new Exhibition Hall of the Illinois State Museum. Elaine also produced A Debt of Thanksgiving, a half-hour television special for Kansas City PBS. She was awarded the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Quality Award, presented by then Kansas Governor John Carlin, and was appointed as a member of the Kansas Advisory Commission on Environment.

Her prairie images were used as stills in Jacques Cousteau’s Rivers of the World documentary film and again in the recent documentary Return to PrairyErth where she appeared in conversation with author William Least Heat-Moon.

Thousands of slides later, Elaine returned to the darkroom to hone her skills in black and white photography at Johnson County Community College, resulting in a one-person Honors Show of prairie images. In Kansas City, Elaine also served on the board of The Society for Contemporary Photography and as director of their annual Current Works Exhibition in 1995. She expanded her efforts into a small profession, which ranged from printing the glossies from rock concerts in Kansas City to benefits and events at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. She made portraits of authors for their book jackets, and shot candid photos. Her work appeared in The Kansas City Star newspaper, The Independent magazine, and elsewhere.

With the advent of digital photography, Elaine’s darkroom became a laundry room. And when she moved to Matfield Green in the heart of the tallgrass prairie, her photography turned to candid photos of local residents and images of small town life. Living in Matfield Green has acquainted Elaine with the rich history that infuses the tallgrass prairie of the Kansas Flint Hills. She has begun the work of preserving historical photographs in an effort to honor the past and to build pride and a sense of place for the families of Chase County. “As modern life alienates us from our roots, it makes it important to find ways to reconnect, to learn about people of our past in a lively and creative manner. This place-based knowledge helps us know ourselves.”

Most recently, Elaine curated the photography exhibition for Symphony in the Flint Hills entitled Ranching on the Tallgrass Prairie, and the archival collection within it, entitled The Culture of Agriculture. The archival collection was subsequently exhibited at Pioneer Bluffs, and now resides in the permanent collection of The Chase County Historical Museum and Library in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas.

Elaine Shea Jones divides her time between Peaks Island, Maine, and Matfield Green, Kansas, and, ever-pursuing new ways of expression, published her first poem last year at 75.

go to Elaine Shea Jones gallery

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Zak Barnes
“The Rhythm of my Days”

July 16 – September 25, 2011

The "where" in Zac Barnes' paintings is usually easy to spot. Barnes, a native Kansan, draws on his home state for inspiration. The “when” can be far more ambiguous, by design. Barnes produces both timeless, impressionistic landscapes (painted in the open air) and studio work that blends influences and images from different periods. The latter works, such as Macho Flower Garden encroach on the borders of what’s been termed Surregionalism, while still remaining true to their prairie roots.

Barnes takes different approaches to creating the two lines. His landscapes are intended to capture a moment, with light and color at the forefront, and the process becomes both meditative and creative for him. But when he's working in the studio, he writes, “The landscape becomes secondary, drawn from memory, a setting and backdrop for human interaction. Narratives in a loose sense, I reference folk art, surrealism and contemporary compositional practices to create ambiguity in both period and environment. Natural and manmade elements are placed in concert, creating a space of pleasant sharing.”

The emotional quality of the work builds with the composition. The elements are arranged and rearranged many times in the course of the painting. Working from nonspecific to specific, colors and shapes eventually settle into threads that connect and integrate. Figures and objects interact within their environment with a certain disregard for physical laws. It is the movement and emotional space created that is important. That approach produces works that combine offbeat humor (check out the farmer in a seed cap and prom dress, holding a string bass, for instance) and a deep sense of the familiar for anyone who has grown up in — or even spent extensive time in — this part of the world.

And while Barnes might refer to himself as an “artist’s artist,” there’s plenty here that will resonate with viewers from all walks of life. Even if it’s hard to pin down the “when” in Barnes' work, there's no mistaking why it works. It works because Barnes is intimately acquainted with his inspirational sources ... so much so that whether he manipulates them or presents them as they were in a given moment, both the actual and the artificial ring true.

”Born and raised in Kansas, I feel a deep connection to the prairie landscape and to the people of this land. These are the base and anchor of my work, and set the emotional tone for any narrative that plays itself out in the paintings. My strongest influences are my immediate environment, life experience, and the way my mind interprets this information. I live alternatively within remote and more cosmopolitan settings, working both in the studio and in the landscape. In this way I am able to explore a wide range of physical and emotional experience.”

”I find fulfillment in the rhythm of my days out in the open, loading and unloading the truck with equipment paints and dog, setting up, and working with the elements. There is physical as well as mental work in the process, so that it becomes a meditation and a practice. I create all of my landscape work on site, with no preparatory drawing or reworking in the studio. I attempt to capture the fleeting moment in paint texture and color, in mood and measure. The scene changes with each passing moment, demanding a concentration of attention and quickness of hand. I paint with brush and pallet knife, often limiting the palette, using earth tones to accentuate moments of color.”

”In the studio, the landscape becomes secondary, drawn from memory, a setting and backdrop for human interaction. Narratives in a loose sense, I reference folk art, surrealism and contemporary compositional practices to create ambiguity in both period and environment. Natural and manmade elements are placed in concert, creating a space of pleasant sharing.”

”The emotional quality of the work builds with the composition. The elements are arranged and rearranged many times in the course of the painting. Working from nonspecific to specific, colors and shapes eventually settle into threads that connect and integrate. Figures and objects interact within their environment with a certain disregard for physical laws. It is the movement and emotional space created that is important.”

go to Zak Barnes gallery

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Lisa Grossman
Lines of Sight

July 16 - September 25, 2011

If you happen to be a native Kansan, you may take a wary interest in the opinions of your home state that you hear in the media or from travelers who have passed through on their way somewhere else. We have all heard the term, “flyover state” or endured comments about the unrelieved flatness or “nowhere-ness” of vast stretches of the high prairie. But to natives, the land is handsome, productive and inspiring even if its attributes are subtle and cannot be fully appreciated at seventy miles per hour on the interstate or from thirty thousand feet through an airliner porthole.

This being the case, it has been gratifying to see painter Lisa Grossman fall in love with the land and sky of Kansas– it isn’t her native place after all, she grew up in the hills of western Pennsylvania– but she came to artistic maturity here on the relatively gentle topography of Kansas, a fortuitous meeting of mind and land that inspired, and continues to inspire in her a tireless attentiveness, the kind that lets us know that Lisa recognizes both the physical and metaphysical beauty of Kansas, a land whose features are strong yet softened under steady winds and grasses, a land that was once at the bottom of the sea, was massaged smooth by ocean waters and whose rolling hills beckon rather than deflect or overwhelm the eye. Over and over, Lisa heads for the open land with her plein air easel and brushes looking again and again at the startling edge of the planet and the chromatic dust that tapers to midnight blue in the dusk or the shade of a ripe peach in the early morning. Or seeking a different perspective boards a small airplane with her camera and records the snaking Kaw River in images she will use to create prints and paintings in her studio.

What do we make of this obsession, this fine madness? The fact is, we all have our interests and attachments to some degree– the “madness,” or call it by another name if you like, enchantment, infatuation, devotion, enthrallment or even love. These, and other descriptive words, reveal aspects of the compulsion to return in every season and at every time of day to dwell on the object of our attention. For an artist who finds her subject, this becomes a Sisyphean task. Think of Monet’s many paintings of water lilies and haystacks, there being no end to the possible variations of light and aspect. But this beautiful “madness” makes the artist far saner than those who would remain indifferent to the glory of the illuminated Earth. When we see Lisa’s paintings and prints we engage them knowing that we can borrow her vision for a time and that she is seeing just a little more than we do, a little sharper, a little more sensitively the variations of light, formations of matter and effects of gravity that comprise the physical conditions of life. But it isn’t just the land and sky she comprehends; it is also the astounding fact of their existence. We understand why Lisa cannot look away, why she returns again and again to the horizon, perceiving Earth’s subtle curvature and atmospheric shadow– in fact, one might suppose, too ephemeral to be depicted with earthy pigment, yet she does it masterfully. Her canvases are filled with subtle light and color. She deftly constructs with either viscous oils or transparent watercolors the illusion of fading sunlight on a meandering river or the evanescent glow of a winter sky. We borrow from her until we understand how to see for ourselves that our Kansas heartland transcends contemporary characterizations based only on its use by humans and that it is more deeply beautiful and alive, independent of us, than we can know.

Edges captivate. Coast hugging people find satisfaction at the edge of dry land. Perhaps they feel they have gone as far as they can go. After all, they have successfully reached the walkable limit, the terminus. There is no such terminus on the prairie– one is forever encircled by the topographical horizon. The horizon moves, drawing away from the traveler (or the seeker) with every step made toward it. How wonderful it is to witness Lisa the artist find love of the land, of place, of space, and to see her develop a relationship with the mysterious horizon, so fixed in the eye from a particular vantage point yet ever illusive when pursued.

The popular and recognizable conception of a horizon is that it is a line. But when one looks closely, there is never an actual line. But a line, or an edge, or even a definite change in tone or value, are just the kinds of things the eye loves to discover. Humans need to know what is in or out, up or down, above or below. And we want to know how to get from here to there; a line serves us well. Is there any image that holds more promise than that of a trail, or a road or a river leading to the horizon? In such a convergence the pathway heralds unknown opportunities and adventures lying just out of sight, beyond what we know, over the horizon.

Reflecting on her pursuit of the horizon, Lisa said, “I have been intrigued by the idea that I might be in pursuit of the horizon, the moving target, from various vantages. I think that is what links my work as well as the prairie sense of space. I thought the other day about how my work really does emerge from the prairie much like the Kaw River emerges from the same prairie. Ideas and impressions filtered by the wind and grasses, soils, limestone, from many points of view but following the shape of the watersheds and converging into several tributaries of themes gathering into one massive body of work downstream, a main channel but with many smaller ones leading down to the river. I know there are endless metaphors related to rivers, but I thought how, really, it is the prairie and what emerges from it that has inspired it all for me.”

By Rick Mitchell, Lawrence

Lisa Grossman, painter and printmaker, lives in Lawrence, Kansas. Originally from Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, she earned an associate’s degree from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and then moved to Kansas City, Missouri in 1988 to work as an illustrator for Hallmark Cards, Inc. She left that position in 1995 to pursue painting fulltime and to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Kansas. The decision to devote herself to painting (and predominantly plein air landscape painting) came following her discovery of the tallgrass prairies of east-central Kansas. In late 2010, she reflected on her beginnings:

“When I first began painting the prairies in earnest back in the early 1990s, it was all new to me and I painted a wider range of subjects– roads, cattle, bison, outbuildings, trees, etc. Over the years my work became greatly simplified as I began to focus on the more abstract aspects of what I was seeing– the feel of the shifting light and color, the ‘airlight’, the distance, and the feeling I had being surrounded by all that openness. It was exhilarating to me to feel so small and have this ‘sense of planet’ for the first time. I could feel the gentle curve of the horizon and see the arc of a leading edge of a (storm) front conforming to the Earth’s atmosphere and see the ‘Earth shadow,’ the beautiful blue shadow of the earth that rises in the east as the sun sets in the west.”

One is struck by the ascension described above – from roads, cattle and outbuildings to “airlight,” “sense of planet” and “Earth shadow.”

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Michael Edge & Toshiko Miki
“Separate Ways Together”

October 1 - December 31, 2011

Climbing the mountain
Full of thoughts Coming down
Empty mind

Toshiko Miki does not often write poems. She hands me a dozen – two new ones since my last visit in 2009. Maybe she is overly critical about this way of expressing herself? “I am not a real poet,” she shrugs. “It’s a different language, I only use words when I have to.” In spite of this, once in a while she relieves herself of an idea so sparingly voiced and yet to the point that it becomes pure poetry. In ten words she climbs a mountain and returns transformed.

In sharp contrast to this frugality stands her production of drawings and paintings. No matter how stressful other obligations are, Toshi will find an opportunity to wander off to her studio and start making gestures on paper and canvas. It’s a daily ritual, just as habitual as cleaning the body and preparing food. Her hand starts dancing as soon as it grabs a pencil and finds a scrap of paper. There is hardly a notion of beginning or ending to it, only a deeply rooted urge for continuity. Do not think that her swirling lines can be read as a diary. She refrains from signs, images, ideas and emotions that are stocked and labeled by the millions in our memory. What Toshi practices is a form of endless improvisation in a very abstract way. “Making art is getting rid of daily noise,” she says. “I want to be free. The trick is to become empty.”

Over forty years of experience have made her an expert dancer. Sitting straight and alert her hand dances like a leaf in the wind, leaving behind airy traces. Pencils, markers and brushes, sometimes only a piece of cloth drenched in Japanese ink, touch ground like footprints in the snow and she instantly knows what it’s worth. Quality is not something to reason about. Toshi is very honest and straight forwarded in her likes and dislikes about food, health, art and people, without becoming judgmental. Why bother with fleeting incidents when the ultimate goal is to achieve an empty mind? It would be a mistake to relate her work to celebrated artists like Pollock and Twombly. Although she knows and respects the highlights of western art history, Toshi Miki was raised in the east. She studied in Tokyo and her work roots in the Japanese Sumi-e technique with its instantaneous brushwork. Nevertheless, she is an American artist. She arrived young in New York and transformed like every immigrant. She raised her daughter the American way and committed herself to Mike Edge, a respectable artist in his own field. In forty years, their marriage has become a unique dialogue between two opposite souls.
Despite all differences they maintain a perfect balance in life and work. Their mutual presentation at Pioneer Bluffs is proof of this.

To fully understand the ‘duet’ of Michael Edge and Toshiko Miki you have to picture the northern desert of New Mexico. Red rock under a blue sky. Severe drought with lightning at the horizon and devastating forest fires. Hummingbirds and rattle snakes. Close to the site where Georgia O’Keeffe became a legend they bought a good stretch of land and built their own dwellings. After an adobe ‘casita’ as starting quarters, Mike constructed a wood frame studio/workshop to tackle an even bigger job. Their final home, including a dreamy studio for Toshi, was made with the tried and tested straw bale technique that keeps out heat and cold. The whole site reflects the grandeur of the desert. Mud walls, naked wood and meticulously crafted furniture create a sense of esthetics that borders austerity. Western minimalism meets Japanese finesse. Space is all around. Both artists retreat to their own territory to explore their own path, but at the end of the day they meet again in the center.

Michael Edge, who was educated on the East Coast, could easily be labeled as a constructivist, but his designs are far too intuitive for that. True, he often uses a ruler. He likes the clean cut form, the spotless color field, the fine tuned balance of a well considered composition. His hand doesn’t dance as inimitable as Toshi’s, but does that make him the opposite artist? Look closer at his work and observe how subtle and sensitive he operates. Do you notice the ‘invisible cut’ that defines a recent series of paintings? Ponder that idea for a few minutes. When put in a bigger perspective, a world of emotions presents itself: cutting is painful, but the surgeon’s scalpel works miracles. Not every cut in life is obvious. When healed, what is left?

Let’s make it clear that Michael Edge is not a conceptual artist merely with ideas. He simply loves to play with metal, wood, ink or paint. In spite of the precision in the execution his work is never ‘engineered’. He seeks the ‘unseen’ form and what he uncovers with utmost care is never heavy. Metal frames, cutting airy spaces in the sky. Painted sticks that dwindle on a canvas like the game of ‘Mikado’ – move one stick out and everything shifts. Deep down I sense a longing to escape the known dimensions. His works on canvas can be seen as flat abstracts, but they hint ever so subtly to multiple layers and for the careful observer they become sculptural. At the other hand his metal sculptures have a tendency to flatness. They do not impress by volume and mass. They seek to blend in with the landscape and to match its limitless dimensions: the never-ending sky, the unstoppable weeds. Michael Edge is a soft-spoken but courageous sculptor. In all modesty he shows us how to break through the limits of our perception.

Life and work cannot be separated. The landscape invades the minds of both artists. But comparing the two players in this show makes us realize how free a human being can be when he, or she, descends from the mountain with an empty mind.

Text by Hendrik van Leeuwen,The Netherlands
Writer, artist, curator of this show

Kim Russo about Toshi Miki in The Albuquerque Journal, March 20, 2008:

INNER SENSE ... The artist closes her eyes and trusts her instincts

In the liner notes for the Miles Davis album “Kind of Blue” the legendary pianist Bill Evans wrote, “There is a Japanese visual art in which the artist is forced to be spontaneous. He must paint on a thin stretched parchment with a special brush and black water paint in such a way that an unnatural or interrupted stroke will destroy the line or break through the parchment. Erasures or changes are impossible. These artists must practice a particular discipline, that of allowing the idea to express itself in communication with their hands in such a direct way that deliberation cannot interfere.”

Evans was comparing the practice of Japanese ink drawing or calligraphy with improvisational jazz. He was highlighting the nature of Miles Davis’ particular way of playing: spontaneous, intuitive, natural – without a predetermined outcome, without picking and choosing.

Toshi Miki (...) paints like improvisational jazz. In fact, she closes her eyes when she picks up the brush, trusting her inner sense of how to move the line across the surface. She works with thin washes of paint on unprimed canvas, so erasure is impossible. When asked if she ends up throwing a lot of canvases away she says, “No, it’s very rare.” She is usually satisfied with the outcome – as long as she trusts herself and doesn’t think too much.

One of her largest and most impressive painting(s), “Swimming Together II,” is 77 by 206 inches – a cacophony of color, particularly yellow and blue, in rounded shapes and thin, dark lines. Miki thinks of these works as “double paintings.” The lines, which she draws first, make the first painting, and the blocks of color create the second painting.

Miki’s paintings are abstract color fields of work – a fusion of Clyfford Still and Robert Motherwell, particularly in the way she uses line, shape, and areas of the raw canvas. Her color, though, is more like Helen Frankenthaler’s.

Harold Rosenberg (...) described the canvas as “an area on which to act” and the activity of the Abstract Expressionists as an “unconscious manifestation of pure creation.” Their paintings were the concrete documentation of experience rather than pictures of it. This describes Miki’s work perfectly. (...) Miki’s paintings are beautifully articulated and sincere.

In a similar large work, “New York to New Mexico,” Miki uses a desert palette that she painted onto the canvas in New Mexico over linear marks she painted on the canvas in New York. The synthesis of place and process makes this work even more contemporary and interesting.

go to Mike Edge gallery
go to Toshi Miki gallery

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Gary and Gretchen Gackstatter
Sublime Stone and Sky
Inspirations from the Prairie Earth

October 1 – December 31, 2011

Come walk with us. There is beauty in the sublime. There is a sense of longing in all of us for timelessness and a connection to the earth. The Flint Hills have always been beyond the capabilities of our language to express the depth of inspiration that comes from taking even one step on the prairie. In that one step, as you place one foot in front of the other, you have travelled thousands of years and experienced flood and famine, snows and suns, man and beast, stone and sky. On the Tallgrass Prairie, you can feel the arch of the earth as you walk.

Artists Gretchen and Gary Gackstatter have roots in this land that inform the very existence of their work. It rises up through them and comes out onto canvas and paper in ways that capture the essence of this slowness and timelessness. Although the paths they take could not be more opposed in approach, they arrive at the same place. A place deep in the Prairie Earth.

Watercolor has long been Gretchen’s forte, although she is also gifted in other mediums. A paintbrush in her hand becomes an instrument of color improvisations. Wild and free in her expressions, her innate sense of balance, line, form and color theory display an energy and fire that takes the viewer on a ride that can be equal parts abstraction and realism. A sense of playfulness and joy and a child-like sense of wonder abound in her works as she takes in the very atmosphere of her surroundings and translates it so we can also see with her eyes and her boundless imagination.

Using 100-year-old crow quill pen tips and ink, Gary has taken the ancient art of ink drawing to a level not seen before. The depth within each piece of Gary’s work requires the viewer to be a participant in his journey. Slowing down, taking one step at a time with him, as he describes the intricacies of the place. He allows us to come into contact with, and be aware of the sacredness of the seemingly insignificant: the lone tree, stones carved with age, the wind and rain and sun on the open plains. His slow and mindful attention to detail becomes almost abstract as one looks more closely then realizes the fullness of the pen and ink coming into focus. The image being crafted from thousands of lines and variances in value, almost shimmering with the beauty and depth he is able to bring to life through the simplicity of ink and paper. Each subject becomes an intimate, profound portrait done out of profound love and respect. With each microscopic layer of ink, he also layers meaning. He gives voice to the inanimate and lets them speak.

What joins these two artists together is a deep love of the natural world. Long inspired by Chase County and the Flint Hills, Gretchen and Gary’s roots in the Kansas landscape are deep. They both see and express the sublime in the stone and skies.

Gretchen Gackstatter has BFA from University of Colorado and Kansas State University, and has taught art in the public schools in Colorado and Texas. She now teaches in her own studio and exhibits in and around St. Louis.

Gary Gackstatter has degrees in music and conducting from Southwestern Oklahoma State University and Wichita State, and is a two-time recipient of the Kansas Governor’s Arts Award -- once as conductor of the Winfield Regional Symphony and as an Individual Multi-genre Artist. He is also a composer with his works for orchestra and band performed internationally. Gackstatter has composed five symphonies, each one combining music with various other art forms, and currently teaches and conducts at St Louis Community College, Meramec. In 2010, Gackstatter was involved in the filming of ‘Return to PrairyErth’, a film by John O’Hara documenting the impact of the 1985 book ‘PrairyErth’ by William Least-Heat Moon.

go to Gary Gackstatter gallery

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Artists in residence

Tania Witte
Risk Hazekamp

Tania Witte (“CayaTe”)
Writer in residence at Pioneer Bluffs, August - September, 2011

Tania Witte is a Berlin, Germany, based author, novelist and spoken word artist. She has been a writer since she learned how to spell, and a performer since she discovered the pleasure of speaking out loud.

A licensed media educator and adult educator, she decided to follow her passion for words; in addition to her artistic work she writes as a freelance critic and journalist for music, art and culture magazines and was a senior editor of the German music magazine “Zillo”. In 2007, she co-edited “Drag Kings – with adhesive beards against patriarchy” published by Querverlag, Berlin, an anthology portraying the diversity of the drag king scene in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Her novel “beziehungsweise liebe” (“respectively love”), about the trials and tribulations of a group of friends and lovers in modern Berlin, was published in March 2011 and a sequel is in progress.

“As a journalist,” writes German author Corinna Waffender, “Tania Witte is an exceptionally good observer, and she knows how to convert her observations into gripping, exciting texts. Her prose work shows another dimension of writing: the sensitivity to understand the language of her characters and to make them come to life before the inner eye without falling back on cliche behavior. Thus, she creates extraordinary story lines full of depth but also filled with easygoing humor. What stays is a smile and the lasting effect of a novel with meaning and depth – a combination that will unfailingly move every reader.”

With four other artists Witte, as CayaTe, founded Berlin’s queer spoken word stage “Shut Up And Speak” touring Germany, and published a CD called “City Voices”. Critic Katinka Kraft says: “CayaTe pushes against societal norms through a lyrical explosion of words. She is a natural performer who combines the spoken word with a poetic body language that sings.”

During her residence in Matfield Green, Tania Witte will probably read from her work in translation, and as CayaTe will do a few performances at Pioneer Bluffs and in Kansas City.

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Risk Hazekamp
Artist in residence at Pioneer Bluffs, August, September, October 2011

Risk Hazekamp is a Dutch artist residing in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) and Berlin (Germany). She participates in the artist in residence program at Pioneer Bluffs from August through October, 2011.

Hazekamp uses photography to explore issues of identity and in particular the way in which gender and identity intersect. By evoking and drawing upon mass media and popular visual language –advertising, fashion and movie genres– she questions the construction of gender-identities. Hazekamp works primarily with photography and video. In her work the language of Hollywood is directly engaged taking on the issue of gender – from the baggage carried in the term to various media constructs. The entire photographic process in her work is analog: from the negative until the final work no computer is used.

Hazekamp’s first American residency was at the Harwood Museum of Art of the University of New Mexico in 2009. The residency culminated in the exhibition “Valley of the Gods: Contemporary Analog Photography In and Around Taos.” During her residency at the Harwood, Hazekamp took photos of herself in the overwhelming landscape of New Mexico. The Southwestern landscape functioning as an ultimate symbol for Nature. The wide, empty landscape is not only a visual aspect of the image, but it is also part of the concept of the work. Emptiness stands here for a non-defined space, based on the desire to step outside existing linguistic and physical borders. Hazekamp’s self-portraits express that identity should not be understood as a logical and coherent thing, but as something that is dynamic, fragmented and as a changeable process that is constantly moving.

Her most recent work consisted of a solo show in Rotterdam titled “6 Brides or 6 Brothers”. Hollywood and the road movie cult are its subject. These movies’ rebellious and often nostalgic expressions are revived through Hazekamp’s camera lenses, which reveal a new interpretation.

During her stay in Kansas, Hazekamp will use the tallgrass prairie and cattle ranching as a backdrop for her photos. Some of the results will be shown in museum exhibitions in Europe as well as at The Gallery at Pioneer Bluffs (in 2012).

go to Risk Hazekamp gallery

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Event & exhibitions

October 1 – December 31
Exhibition “Sublime Stone and Sky” by Gary and Gretchen Gackstatter
And
Exhibition “Separate Ways Together” by Mike Edge and Toshi Miki

October 9 at 3:30 p.m.
Artists Risk Hazekamp and Tania "Caya" Witte will give a presentation of their work at Bill and Julia McBride's home in Matfield Green.

Risk and Caya are artists in residence at The Gallery at Pioneer Bluffs. They (a visual artist from the Netherlands and a writer from Germany respectively) both live in Berlin. Their presentation is about Risk's photography and Caya’s words, about Americans and "Berliners" and the way they experience life.

In a challenging and daring way both artists explore issues of identity and in particular, the way in which gender and identity intersect.

November
Musical performance by Gary Gackstatter
Wine & cheese Sunday

December
Wine & cheese Sunday

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Workshops

Successful masterclass leads to abundant creativity
The first masterclass organized by The Gallery at Pioneer Bluffs, in a hot summer weekend, unleashed a tsunami of so far often hidden creativity. Twenty-one students (age 10 to 75, from Wichita and Kansas City and places in between), inspired by visiting Dutch artist and art critic Hendrik van Leeuwen, took up the challenge to work abstract. They created sketches and monoprints that were shown later at a two-week-long group exhibition. In 2012, new workshops will be initiated, including one directed by Lisa Grossman. Hendrik van Leeuwen will possibly return to Pioneer Bluffs in 2013, as artist in residence and to lead an extended painting workshop.

go to workshop gallery

About Pioneer Bluffs

Pioneer Bluffs is located along scenic highway # 177 just north of Matfield Green, Kansas, at the center of the Flint Hills – the largest expanse of untilled tallgrass prairie in North America. The scenic beauty of the prairie and the stately cluster of house and barns combined with the historic significance of the Rogler family who founded Pioneer Bluffs in 1859, have created a revered landmark. It was designated a National Register Historic District in 1992.

Today the Pioneer Bluffs Foundation’s mission is to celebrate the history and experience of the tallgrass prairie and its ranching heritage; and to revitalize Pioneer Bluffs as a community resource and gathering place where sustainable ways to live in harmony with nature are explored. The art on display stays close to this mission.

Where and when

Pioneer Bluffs is located just 10 minutes north of the Cassoday exit from Kansas Turnpike I-35 and 20 minutes south of Cottonwood Falls and Highway # 50.

Ranch and gallery opening hours:
March through December
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday 10 - 5
Tuesday and Wednesday by appointment

Solo exhibitions in the art spaces and on the grounds:
March through December, during gallery hours
See events program

Where to stay in or near Matfield Green

The Gallery at Pioneer Bluffs, the historic ranch, and the surrounding tallgrass prairie deserve a longer stay than just passing through. At the gallery, you will find general information about the historic Rogler ranch, the Flint Hills, and Chase County, as well as a helpful little map of a recommended autoroute through a magnificent part of the tallgrass prairie, and hiking information.

We recommend the following places to stay overnight, or spend a restful weekend or vacation:

Matfield Green
Not far from Pioneer Bluffs, a few private homes and guesthouses are made available to visitors for overnights, weekends and longer periods.

The Matfield Station on the railroad is in the historic bunkhouse, now beautifully restored and offers all modern comforts, and great views of the prairie.
Visit www.vrbo.com/362132
Check out the Facebook page
Or e-mail us at: matfieldstation@gmail.com

Elaine’s Prairie Home is a beautifully restored private home just outside Matfield Green.
Visit www.vrbo.com/367577
Or e-mail Elain at: elaines.prairie.home@gmail.com

Cottonwood Falls
The Grand Hotel & Grill in Cottonwood Falls has a well-known restaurant, famous for its beef. Phone: (620) 273 6763.

On the Cottonwood River The Millstream Resort Motel has a great garden and overlooks the falls. Phone: (620) 273 8114.

New in town is The Larkin Inn. Two charming and convenient guest houses.
Phone: 620-273-273. Check out the webpage

Cedar Point
Flying W Ranch: Honoring the Cowboy Traditions of the Tall grass Prairie, Kansas Flint Hills - Phone: (620) 274-4357. Check out the webpage

Strong City
On highways #50 / #177: Prairie Fire Inn & Spa. Phone: (620) 273 6356.

Contact

Phone: 620 753 3484

E-mail: gallery@pioneerbluffs.org