This cotton-rat pup, is just a few hours old. He is from a litter born inside a live trap on a transect I was helping with. He and his descendants live at Cheyenne Bottoms, in Kansas. The pup and his litter were released a few minutes later. We watched as the mother quietly came into view, and carried to safety each pup inside her mouth under the safety of a Kochia plant. This maternal behavior was a rare and rewarding sight.

Holding a recent find: a large Cotton-rat. He was tagged, weighed, sexed, and released  - free to go about his business, chewing on tasty forbs.

Petri dish of grass seeds I am working with. The goal is to germinate the grasses for scientific illustration.

The seeds were allowed to germinate. Here is a view of a Little Bluestem cultivar a few days within germination.

The past seven years of my life reflect an intimate relationship with the unique grasslands of Kansas.These pictures and my work reflect how my experiences with this great system and the rural environment it intersects with, have influences my art-making. I am now a graduate student of art with a background in biological sciences. I was a graduate student of Biology too. For the same reasons I entered science, I enter art to maintain a grounded reality. Rangelands create this experience for me. They are known for being wide, unarable places populated by cattle and vegetation - but to me they are one of the rare places on earth where a person can be overwhelmed by place, and actually be present. This connectivity encapsulates knowing not just names of organisms in a place, but understanding their social value - ethnobotany and agriculture for example - and of course, the personal experiences we inevitably gain from interacting within this system as another living being.

Installation using plants collected from the Field in Kansas