Big Sky
March 14th, 2006
I’ve always debated over how to answer the question, “Where are you from?” I usually hesitate and then depending on which way the wind is blowing that day, will respond with either Kansas or Seattle. I spent the first nine years of my life in Kansas and the first two years of high school there. Half of the fourth and fifth grades were in Seattle and then an additional six years — the formative years where I finished high school, graduated college, and got married. The point of this rambling is the textile art that I made for a special person’s birthday. She lives in the country, which was my original inspiration for the sketch and color palette. But, the more I worked on it, the more Kansas imagery crept in: sunflowers and a wide expanse of sky. I’ve heard people say of Kansas that it’s a good state to drive right through because there aren’t any tourist attractions to stop you and the terrain is flat as a board. This is all true, but true beauty can be found in the plain and the flat. In the summertime when the grasses are tall, I sometimes drive out into the middle of nowhere; the kind of nowhere without a soul to disturb no whizzing of a car, just the wind in the reeds, the buzz of the bugs and a blue sky so all encompassing, it’s like a warm hug.
11 Comments Add your own
1. *karen | March 14th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
That’s the beautiful thing about a home I suppose — you know the place and appreciate details that are overlooked by those passing through.
2. beki | March 14th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
This piece is so nice and calming.
3. Stephanie | March 14th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
In defense of Kansas it IS pretty. My favorite is when a storm is coming and the sky is purple with rainclouds and lightning and the grasses are waving greeny-gold. Also, there is one tourist trap I remember vividly. It has “the worlds largest groundhog” (3 stories of fiberglass) and a “zoo” of two headed snakes, 5 legged cows and other oddities. Makes for a really fun afternoon. Watch out for the ducks though they bite!
4. Amy | March 14th, 2006 at 7:41 pm
What a beautiful piece!
I know what you mean about “where are you from” – I’ve got Kansas, North Dakota, California, Kansas, Georgia before moving to Chicago as an adult. I claim Kansas most often – definitely a midwest gal at heart.
5. Alicia | March 14th, 2006 at 8:27 pm
Definitely feels like we’re in Kansas here. . . . Love it.
6. Blair | March 14th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
I clicked over from Flickr because I just had to say I love these pieces of textile art. Yes, they do remind me of Kansas. I was there in the summer and I see what you’re saying. Oh, I wonder what a Seattle one would look like. Defintely not yellow, you know?
Your blog is wonderful, so glad I found it!
7. marybeth | March 15th, 2006 at 12:12 am
Hi Dacia,
It is like a sunny , joyous , “warm hug”
Po Office tomorrow to send your package eastward =)
Xo
MB
8. aja | March 15th, 2006 at 9:51 am
Very lovely. I have never been to Kansas, but if it was the inspiration for this, it must be a nice sunny place!
9. kelly | March 16th, 2006 at 12:46 am
gorgeous, glad you posted them!
10. Siri | May 1st, 2006 at 10:53 am
I grew up in Seattle and always longed to drive across Kansas. A friend once sent me an postcard she drew herself with crayons of the sunflower fields while she drove across the state on I-70. I’ve never lived anywhere where there weren’t any mountains in my peripheral vision. Then, when I lived in Boulder, Colorado for a couple of years I finally drove through Kansas on trips back and forth to see my then-boyfriend-now-husband’s family in St. Louis. One time when we stopped about half way in Hays, I got panicky and a little disoriented by all that openness, realizing that it was about 8 hours of driving time in one direction to be near mountains again, or 8 hours in another direction before I’d be in an enclosed space with a solid brick house around me. It was what I’d imagine claustrophobia to feel like, only stemming from the opposite…all that open space all around me in every direction.
I’ve only driven through Lansas on the highway, but I’ve always wanted to just turn off an exit someday and get myself lost on some tiny backroads. I have to fight that urge when I drive through eastern Washington and eastern Montana too because when we’re driving through places like that, it always seems that we’re in too much of a hurry to reach our destination.
I long to find that peaceful “place” that you mention. You’ve captured that feeling so well in your piece above.
Oh, and I’m reading the Little House on the Prairie to our 6 year old son right now and we’re just at the part where they’re building their house and are discovering the joys of the prairie around them.
11. Siri | May 1st, 2006 at 10:54 am
Whoops, my finger must have missed! Kansas, that is, not Lansas.
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