Art, Agriculture, and Our Changing Relationship to the Land

Reception and Panel Discussion

In what ways have we lost our connection to the earth, and how do we rebuild it? What does it mean to “work the land”? Artist Melody Epperson has sought out these answers over the past two years, exploring the farmlands of eastern Adams County and the people who tend to them.

• View Melody Epperson’s exhibition Dust to Apples: The Colors of the Eastern Plains, a collection of captivating encaustic and ink paintings.
• Get up close with the breathtaking photography of Jimena Peck.
• Hear from a moderated panel featuring Melody Epperson and farmers from Berry Patch Farms and Flying B Bar Ranch exploring their stories, their challenges, and their everchanging relationship to the environment. Panel moderated by KUVO JAZZ Host Abi Clark.
• This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments provided.

Learn more about Dust to Apples: The Colors of the Eastern Plains here.

Agenda

• 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. | Exhibition on view and Reception
• 5:30 p.m. | Remarks & Panel Discussion

About Dust to Apples: The Colors of the Eastern Plains

In a world increasingly disconnected from the land, Dust to Apples: The Colors of the Eastern Plains seeks to heal our relationship with the natural world. In collaboration with Adams County Parks, Open Space & Cultural Arts, artist Melody Epperson explores her family’s challenging history as farmers during the Dust Bowl, what it means to “work the land,” and guides us on a journey of reconnection with the earth.

Over two years, Epperson immersed herself in the farms of eastern Adams County and the Historic Splendid Valley to talk with farmers, learn their stories, and collect natural materials from their lands to create pigments and inks. Items collected spent months curing, resulting in an array of colors mirroring the land. Epperson used berries, plums, and sand cherries to make her inks, while using ground-up flowers, plants, dirt, and charcoal to create the pigments used in the paintings you see on these walls.

Melody’s work is complemented by the documentary photography of Jimena Peck who has traveled around Adams County with Melody, capturing stunning images of the land and those living on and tending to it.

This project was made possible in part by SCFD.

Special Thanks to Participating Farms and Collaborators

Berry Patch Farms
CSU Extension
Curious Farms Market
Flying B Bar Ranch, Brighton
Historic Splendid Valley
LazyB Acres Alpacas, Bennett
Red Daisy Farm, Brighton
Sakata Farms, Brighton
Town of Bennett
Town of Strasburg