Kansas Complexities

“Kansas Complexities”

This piece celebrates my home state of Kansas in all of its diversity. The sunflower is the state flower so I used all kinds of elements to create a textured, dimensional sunflower on a 12 x 12 inch cradled wood panel. the inspiration for the piece actually came from the antique wooden embellishment that makes up a petal in the upper right corner.  I found the piece at a small town hardware store full of wonderful old hardware and reclaimed bits of this and that. This little wooden embellishment set the tone for the rest of the somewhat eccentric petals. In the center I placed some rusty old bottle caps from my collection of scavenged goodies (gas stations in the somewhat shady parts of town are great places to find them!) To the bottle caps I added some gear replicas, beads, and a little wooden elephant because I love the elephants at the Sedgwick County (Wichita) zoo. Teeny tiny brown beads fill in the spaces in between the bottle caps.  The petals are made of various papers, paint, corrugated cardboard and fabric.  On top of those are ether elements from my goody jar… an old key, a tiny replica of a porcelain doll, a single wing, jewelry bits, etc. Another wooden flourish embellishes a leaf in the lower left, and it is all finished up with a border all around. I have been fascinated with using borders recently.

If you would like to see this piece in person, it is currently hanging (and for sale!) at Gallery XII in Wichita for their 12 Squared show. Stop by tonight for the Final Friday reception for this show. You can also stop by Tessera Fine Art Gallery, right around the corner. There is always an excellent variety of pieces in many different styles and mediums. I won’t be able to be there, as I have another event to attend, so I was very happy that they posted this photo on instagram of the pieces all hung.  Looks sharp doesn’t it?

Wishing a Happy Birthday to the state of Kansas on Jan. 29!