In an effort to enhance the educational value of Impact exhibits and further involve the viewer, each artwork includes a brief descriptor.
Descriptors may describe an unusual artistic technique, tell a story, give insight into the artist's thinking, or provide other educational background material. Following are examples from each show.
Impact Willa Cather Exhibit
Artists respond to American writer and Pulitzer recipient, Willa Cather.
PATRICIA COSLOR
Sargent, Nebraska
As If They Were Persons
Acrylic
From: Book 1 Chapter 4
My Àntonia
by Willa Cather
"Trees were so rare in that country, and they had such a hard fight to grow that we used to feel anxious about them, and visit them as if they were persons."
BEN DARLING
Sidney, Nebraska
Floor of the Sky
Oil on Canvas
From: Book VII Chapter 4
Death Comes for the Archbishop
by Willa Cather
“Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world; but here the earth was the floor of the sky. The landscape one longed for when one was away, the thing all about one, the world one actually lived in, was the sky, the sky!”
Color of Music - Rhythm of Art
KEN HOSMER
North Platte, Nebraska
Symphonic Connection
Watercolor
This special painting captures the spiritual essence of connection—between musician, instrument, and the rhythmic flow of music.
The shifting passages of watercolor further enhance this sensation.
In this painting, I portray the double bass which is the largest of the string instruments in the symphony orchestra. Its low tones often provide a rhythmic and harmonic foundation which makes the whole orchestra sound richer and more resonant.
Pollinators Exhibit
MARCIA BAUERLE
imperial, Nebraska
Everything Connects
Mixed media
This painting was inspired by a 500-year-old quote from Leonardo DaVinci. The mandala is formed by Sacred Geometry and depicts Earth from space, surrounded by plants, animals, and insects. It shows the intricate and interconnected web of life where all living beings depend on each other. For instance, plants rely on pollinators for their survival, and the health and nutrition of humans rely on the well-being of the plants and creatures we share this planet with. Science is dependent on art. Art is dependent on science. Everything Connects.
Spirit of Robert Henri Exhibit
This exhibit is our tribute to Robert Henri, one of America’s most renowned artists and teachers.
DAVID DORSEY
Valentine, Nebraska
Ode to Mary Conomora
Acrylic
I love the many portraits by Robert Henri, their vibrant colors and wonderful compositions. The models in his paintings gaze out from the canvas and transport us to a past era, yet they still resonate with us today. My piece is a tribute to his painting titled “Mary of Conomora”, painted on one of his trips to Ireland. I have Irish immigrants in my family, and this is a thread connecting me to that distant land.
Nebraska Roots Exhibit
The Nebraska Roots Exhibit celebrates both our past history and the joys of rural life.
SAMMY LYNN
Glenvil, Nebraska
School District # 29
Pencil
Nebraska roots run deep, and some of the strongest grew from our one-room schoolhouses.
Our pioneer families saw fit to cultivate the education of our children, and these young roots reaped the benefits of their education wherever they decided to grow.
Skyscape Exhibit
JULIA NOYES
Lincoln, Nebraska
Aurora Borealis
Acrylic / Mixed media
This painting was inspired by an Aurora Borealis I saw in Alaska. I thought it looked like an abstract expressionist painting. The Aurora Borealis, known as the Northern Lights, is a result of electrons colliding with the upper levels of the Earth’s atmosphere. Layers of blues, purples, gold, blacks, fuchsias, and oranges move across the sky, creating a magical skyscape.
Impact Finest Exhibit
Exhibit Retired
BETH JASNOCH
Kearney, Nebraska
Altered History
Metal Sculpture
Like the steady rhythm of time, life goes on—sunrise, sunset, year after year.
The bits and pieces in this rusty landscape vary in age. Some are new and smooth, others are over a hundred years old—weathered and timeworn—collected from fields, tracks, dusty roads, byways, and places untold. Imagine the stories they could tell! Discarded and cast aside with little thought, scraps of history, now rearranged and reconfigured into a new vista, chained together in this present time for a journey through another hundred years.