Artist Statement

Kimberly Baxter Packwood's current body of work depicts the ancient prairie as it once existed, inhabited by native plants, animals and fauna, and the farms that dominate the modern horizon.

Kimberly uses natural materials and processes to demonstrate the progression of the native prairie from its ancient origins to the present through color, texture and form.  Through the use of Natural Dyes, Ocher's, Earth Pigments, and rust on cloth she is able to explore the tension between the natural and the unnatural (man-made).

Biography

Kimberly Baxter Packwood is a professional mixed-media artist that specializes in surface design using natural dyes, rust, and wax.

Kimberly’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries in the US and abroad and has been published in various books and professional journals.  She is the Art Instructor for The Prairie Fibers Company, LLC., and teaches nationally and internationally (online).

A New Direction – A New Voice

In 2008 I came to a point in my career where I found myself struggling with the direction I wanted to go.  Up until that point I spent the better part of thirty plus years wanting the prairie of two hundred years ago versus the prairie we have today. My mother told me once that I was born about three hundred years too late, that's how much I yearn for the ancient prairie. Where I expect to see bison cresting a hill instead I'm greeted with a tractor or a combine. Where I think there should be teepees and other primitive housing I'm greeted with silos and barns instead.

There is, however, one commonality that binds both the past and today together and that is Corn!

Corn sustained the ancients as it does modern man.

So with the idea of corn in mind I have set out to create a series dedicated to that which intrigues and haunts me, corn.