One Year in Abilene!

July 2nd marked the turning point of the year. Not only is it closer to Jan 1st, 2026 than it is to Jan 1st, 2025 now, but we are also now closer to 2050 than 2000!! Does that blow your mind as much as it does mine? (Seems like just yesterday I was playing hackey sack in my airwalks outside my high school and talking to my friends about whether or not the Y2K bug was going to be the fall of western civilization!)

July 2nd, 2025 also marked another milestone for me and my husband: the one year anniversary of when we packed all our things into the back of a very HOT U-Haul truck in Kansas City as torrential rain poured down, then drove across the sunny, green Flint Hills with a very angry cat in the front seat to Abilene, Kansas, where family was waiting to help us unload that giant U-Haul into a storage unit in 100 degree heat so we could check into the Diamond Hotel, exhausted, tired, and both suffering from excruciating migraines. I remember that first night that Johnny had to fix the AC Unit in our hotel room (so thankful to be married to an HVAC technician every summer) and Marshall the cat tried to hide under the bed the entire night because as we soon discovered, Abilene has a very healthy amount of pyromaniacs and the whole city erupts in fireworks for the entire first week of July. After a month of living in the motel room, family guest rooms, and a cozy AirBnB camper on a gorgeous ranch north of town, we finally got moved into our new home. If it hadn’t been for the love and support of our families and friends, I don’t know how we would have survived that first month.

The year that has passed since that day has been an eventful, restorative and nothing short of life-changing time for me. In that year, I have:

-Launched a website to sell my original art and prints online

- set up my home studio and taken the risk to do art full time.

-Taught twenty ‘Paint This!’ Classes for the Arts Council of Dickinson County & private groups

-Taught a painting class to over 20 visiting delegates from our sister city Omitama, Japan

-Completed a work of civic art on the Cowboy Boot Trail that’s on display at the Abilene Recycling Center

-Completed 12 commissioned paintings and drawings

-Completed another full month of Inktober drawings that resulted in a hundreds of new fans and followers on my instagram, threads and facebook accounts. Started a redbubble store to sell products featuring my art and Inktober drawings.

-Judged the North Central Kansas high school art competition

-Showed two pieces in a Local Artists’ show

-Participated in the “Petals at their Peak” Plein Air festival at Eisenhower Park Rose Garden

-Started a new National Parks painting series (the first painting “El Capitan Protest” sold 14 prints on the first day it was released…a record for me!)

-survived a couple of blizzards, some strong Kansas springtime winds, and saw both Aurora Borealis and a comet!

-Joined the Ladies’ Literary League of Abilene, one of the most historic ongoing organizations in Kansas.

-Turned FORTY! (I still can’t believe that)

-Got to know an amazing community of welcoming & wonderful people in my new hometown of Abilene.

After 39 years of living within the same 5 square mile radius near KC, it was a bit of an adjustment at first (still getting used to some country culture shock…plus missing KC Joe’s BBQ, Italian Delight’s spaghetti & meatballs, and a few other luxuries from my old stomping grounds) but Abilene has really started to feel like home, especially lately.

I loved listening to the symphony at the Eisenhower Center (where Johnny works), taking walks through the woods at Brown’s Park, and eating at the Chuckwagon, La Fiesta, or M & R Grill. I couldn’t wait for my mom to come visit so I could show her the irises at Eisenhower Rose Garden, tour the Seelye Mansion and the Heritage Center with her, stroll through Antiques’ Festival and see “Steel Magnolias” at the Great Plains Theatre. Then there was the Christkindl Market, Cowboy Christmas, the Smoky Hill River Festival, picnics at Milford Lake and other parties with Johnny’s family, all our Sunday morning walks in the Cemetery, not to mention 365 beautiful sunsets over the Kansas plains that gave way to starry nights that make it clear why our state motto is “Ad Astra Per Aspera.”

I found a lot of support here during some tough times too. We said goodbye to my dad this year, and something about his passing seemed to make my grief over my sister’s death the year before feel all the more heavy to carry. I lost my two biggest cheerleaders in the last couple of years and their absence is a MIGHTY hole in my life. There have been so many times over the last few months that I wanted to call them and tell them all about the exciting things that have been happening here, but I’m trusting that they are watching from heaven and that I’ve made them proud. But even through the sad times, I’ve seen how this small town has such a strong sense of community and hospitality— through neighbors, family connections, people I’ve met from the Arts Council & classes, plant swaps or the community facebook page… folks who have stood beside me at protests downtown, served at charity events we’ve attended or that we run into every week at the grocery store. As Johnny and I have become more integrated into the community, we’ve seen how this place really works to take care of its people, and now that we count ourselves among its people, we have started to think about ways that we can give back too.

The Arts Council of Dickinson County in particular has been an incredible support system for me as I’ve been building my career in the arts here, and I’ve made so many meaningful connections through the painting classes I teach, the events that are hosted by the council, and the opportunities that I’ve been given thanks to their support of local arts. Both the previous arts council director Samantha and the new director Bette have been so kind & generous to me since my arrival here, and I’m proud to call them friends. They’ve really shown me an ideal example of how a small town community can support its local artists that I think a lot of places could learn from.

It has been a pleasure to get to know you this year, Abilene and how I’ve loved teaching you to paint and to see the beauty in the world around us. I’m so honored when you’ve asked me to paint pictures of your beloved pets or family members who have passed, or hired me to do calligraphy on the dedication page of the fancy leather bible that you’re gifting to a new pastor. I love to capture the beauty of the wildlife & land around here, the old Victorian houses and the historical sites…. places where you got married or met your sweetheart, celebrated milestones with your children, or received good news and bad news. I’m making my own memories here now too and after 365 days, I can honestly say that this place is a hidden gemstone of the plains. A place that comes to my mind now when I click together the heels of my ruby red cowboy boots and whisper, “There’s no place like home!”