Lois Peterson

Imagery comes to me slowly over the course of several years or perhaps more accurately over the course of a lifetime. I grew up in a 4th generation farming family during a time when slight consideration was given to what had existed on the land prior to our own personal fields of corn, hay, and oats. I was already deep into adulthood when I came to the realization that our family, including myself, had financially gained roots through the plowing under of prairies and the cutting down of woodlands. Recognizing the negative impacts of farming practices was inevitable. Our family, like many others, were engaged in the business of growing crops for our small dairy heard, we certainly were not interested in preserving the land as it existed before crop farming. While I consider my own family’s history, I acknowledge that it is not a unique history, indeed for much of the Midwest it is a very prevalent one.

For the past 10 years I have been engaged with reintroducing a small prairie and planting native trees on my own land. The value of natural prairies for our ecosystems near and far is always in my thoughts when I am engaged with drawing. My images are frequently of dormant prairie plants and segments of trees, which have fallen, due both to age and environmental conditions. I try to honor their beauty while at the same time I morn their diminishing existence.

Over the years my work has alternated between abstract/formal pieces and the mostly representational work of my most current series. Through the act of drawing, I try to find a current of meaning, frequently encountering the limits of my own understanding in the process. I search for an understanding of my place and my identity as a rural artist, a person with an agricultural history and now a person aware of an ecosystem in need of help.