By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
An FHSU graduate student explores nature through fiber and natural dying processes in her MFA exhibit on display now through Sept. 9 at the Moss-Thorns Gallery of Art on the Fort Hays State University campus.
Kammy Downs, 60, grew up in Leon in southcentral Kansas. As a child she spent many hours with her family in the outdoors, as her parents fished and hunted.
"While my parents were doing that, I was playing along a river or in a forest or grassy area and so I had a lot of creative time to spend that way," she said.
"Then as I grew up I have just continued to feel very comfortable and relaxed in amongst nature, so I do take lots of walks. It's my meditation to spend time in nature ..."
Downs chose the specific flowers and plants to highlight in her exhibit because of their medicinal effects. Downs struggled with health problems and turned to natural remedies to augment modern medicine.
Downs' emphasis in the art department is drawing, but most of her art in her MFA exhibit are mixed media fiber piece
She grew up in a creative family. Her mother and grandmothers were all quilters. Her mother makes wedding dresses. One of the pieces in her exhibit is made from an old quilt back that belonged to her grandmother.
Downs, who taught art for 37 years, also was a member of a quilt guild for a time.
All of her pieces are hand sewn. In addition, she used natural dies from plants such as red cabbage, red onion, nettles, turmeric and elderberries.
"It's just a magical experience," she said. "For example, the red onion skins, you would think it would come out red, right? Forever, I was trying all these things to get a green color, and it was red onion skins that turned my fabric a beautiful green."
She also used a natural dying process called echo printing. Plant material is rolled in wet fabric and dried. The impression of the leaf or flower is left on the material.
'Color Emotion'
During her graduate studies, Downs conducted an art research project. For a semester, she kept a journal of her emotions. Each day she also created a 6X6-inch art piece that depicted the dominant emotion she was feeling that day.
The resulting piece is titled "Color Emotion" and is in her MFA exhibit.
She found that she expressed anger most often in black and red and happiness in yellow. The project spanned the spring 2020 semester.
"That was when we had to go home and take all of our stuff from campus," she said. "I had to move all my stuff from my studio there on campus and move it back to my apartment. ...
"There was one whole week where it was just black scribbles because that was all I could think. It was so disturbing."
At first, Downs said she was concerned COVID had ruined the project, but in retrospect, she said she thought the project helped her deal with difficult emotions.
'Seeds4HOPE'
Downs also took on the community art project "Seeds4HOPE" during her graduate studies. The project seeks to bring to light the issue of depression and suicide in rural and agricultural communities.
A thin strip of brown fabric is decorated with seed shapes that depict words or images that people focus on to get them through difficult times.
The pandemic kept her from visiting rural communities in person for the project as she had hoped. Instead, she created a Facebook event. The result was seeds submitted from far and wide, including internationally.
Downs will be doing a workshop on Sept. 10 in Topeka on the Seeds4HOPE project as part of an art festival there.
"I want to start talking about depression and [help people] be aware that people might look like they are doing OK, but they might not be really doing OK," she said.
She will offer resources on how to reach out for help and get training on dealing with mental illness.