Growing up on a junkyard helped this sculpture artist learn how to 'find beauty in the overlooked'

Book cover jacket of Jeffie Brewer's newly released book Joy Machine  (K.Co Press graphic)

Growing up on a junkyard may sound depressing, but for Jeffrey or "Jeffie" Brewer, an East Texas native sculpture artist, his childhood days living among discarded things helped him develop his quirky, playful artistic style. He shares some of his artistic wisdom and childhood experiences with Olivia Weeks of The Daily Yonder. A condensed version of their Q&A is shared below.

Weeks: Tell me about yourself — who are you, what do you do, and where do you live?

Brewer: I’m just an artist specializing in colorful, silly, sometimes thoughtful sculptures that bring a touch of playfulness to public spaces, private homes, galleries, and museums. I live and work in East Texas, where I make things out of metal, often inspired by my childhood, the natural world, and whatever is rattling around in my brain at any given moment.

Weeks: Can you tell me about your town, Nacogdoches, and maybe a little about East Texas in general?

Brewer: Nacogdoches and East Texas in general have a character all their own – there’s something deeply rooted, raw, and nostalgic about the place. It’s home to lush, dense forests, rolling fields that stretch endlessly, and a lot of Texas history. The area has a quiet charm that speaks to a slower way of life, full of folks who are deeply connected to this place. . . . At my core, I am a redneck, with a thin veneer of culture and worldliness.

Weeks: In your book, Joy Machine, you write about growing up on a junkyard, and about how formative it was to your work. What were those early artistic explorations like? Did they all start with other people’s junk?

Jeffie Brewer's art brings a sense of playfulness into spaces.
(Photo by David Kimling via The Daily Yonder)

Brewer: Growing up in the junkyard taught me to find beauty in the overlooked, to take pieces from the past and either repurpose them or simply collect them. It was more a place for learning about industrial tools and working with my hands than a place for making art, per se. . . . The junkyard offered a space to destroy and rebuild, almost like a lens to see the world through. It gave me skills and memories that would later shape my understanding of what art could and would be.

Weeks: You seem to have always been into monsters and animals and creatures of all kinds — I’m thinking of your lovely 'Burds.' Where does that come from? And what’s your relationship like to the characters? Do they have personalities to you?

Brewer: Animals, creatures, and whimsical shapes have always fascinated me – they offer such freedom for imagination. 'Burds,' and other characters, let me play with personality, form, and storytelling. I see each creature as having its own charm and quirks, and in many ways, they become real to me, carrying a personality as I work on them.

Jeffie Brewer's book, Joy Machine, was released this month from K.Co Press.

Wednesday quick hits: Oreo scandal; dead solar panels; photos of the year; the nurse shortage; food inflation dips

Is there less creme filling?
(Wall Street Journal photo)

Sometimes less is more, but sometimes less is just less, especially if you're talking about less filling in your delightfully creamed Oreo. "Oreo fans think there's less filing, but the Snack maker says it hasn't tinkered with creme ratio," reports Jesse Newman of The Wall Street Journal. "But suspicious consumers are on high alert."

Inquiring minds want to know: Where do dead solar panels end up? "The majority end up in landfills," reports Izzy Ross of Grist. "But there are no federal requirements for recycling solar panels, and states have different regulations for what to do with them. Panels can also contain small amounts of heavy metals like lead, which makes getting rid of them more complicated. The vast majority of panels are thrown away in landfills — only about 10 percent are recycled."

Photo by Louie Palu, National Geographic

It's finally time for the National Geographic photos of the year. A diverse and beautiful world awaits. In the photo, left, Finnish and U.S. soldiers train for winter warfare by navigating an obstacle course while on skis. The exercise took place two months before Finland — which shares an 800-mile border with Russia — joined NATO. The training was arranged in response to the war in Ukraine.

Is there a nursing shortage? That depends. "In 2022, the American Hospital Association quoted an estimate that half a million nurses would leave the field by the end of that year, bringing the total shortage to 1.1 million," reports Brittany Trang of STAT. "At the same time, National Nurses United insists there isn't a nurse shortage at all. There are plenty enough nurses for the country, they say — merely a shortage of nurses who want to work under current conditions."

Bill Watterson comic via
Mental Floss

When life gets too heavy, lift yourself up with some comics like Calvin and Hobbes. The wacky duo gets up to all kinds of shenanigans. The cartoon strip's artist was also a bit of a card himself.

After two years of stubborn food inflation, Americans can expect a slow drop in at-home food costs. "According to economists with the Department of Agriculture, while food prices are expected to remain higher in 2024, the rampant inflation rates experienced in 2022 and 2023 are anticipated to return to more 'normal' levels in the upcoming fiscal year, reports Charlsie McKay, RFD-TV News, which covers rural America.

Photo by M. Zilses, Unsplash

As the the holiday season approaches, it's time to consider how to eat all the treats you love without looking like you ate all the things you love. "What if the best way to curb sugar cravings is just to eat as much as you want? That is the core of an idea gaining traction among dietitians," reports Alina Dizik of The Wall Street Journal. "Who say that letting ourselves graze unfettered on a cache of Halloween fun-size Snickers can reduce our sugar lust in the long run."

Quick hits: Learning about guns the rural way; making 'pain-free' horseradish; inspiration from a farm girl; rugged art

Horseradish can have a mighty kick! "Making it from fresh roots is easy and rewarding, but the oil released during processing can be an assault on the senses if you're not careful," writes Eric Hurlock of Lancaster Farming. "Follow this quick guide to reap the pleasure of homemade horseradish. . . without melting your face."

Drawing by Navied Mahdavian, L.A. Times

When an urbanite cartoonist and writer moves to very rural Idaho, lessons about a different way of living and thinking abound in this Op-Comic, "What I learned about guns when I moved to rural America," by Navied Mahdavian of the Los Angeles Times. "Ironically, many people here expressed fear of cities because of perceived gun violence. . . . They view it as a city problem."

In rural Norway, the wool trade has thrived for centuries. "Viking life must have been like this — frigid, wild days in an open boat, constantly watching the waves and clouds to avoid disaster," writes Claire Eamer for Hakai magazine. "Wool was as much a part of that life as the sea and the ships. The Vikings were great sailors and fearsome warriors but couldn't have left port without wool. It provided the raw material for their clothes, their blankets, even the sails that harnessed the wind for their ships."

In the age of Amazon, it's good to see that some golden brick-and-mortar stores, such as Ranch-Land Western Store in the Sandhills of Nebraska, have managed to thrive, reports Natalia Alamdari of Flatwater Free Press. "Three generations of the McBride family have outfitted customers from Nebraska and beyond with boots and hats. . . . The store is filled to the brim with history and memories. It has survived a fire that threatened its existence, booms and busts in the cattle market, the economic strain of a global pandemic."

Brynn loves taking care of 'her' cows.
(Photo via DH)

"Sometimes the biggest inspiration comes in the smallest packages. This certainly holds true for Brynn Grewe from Cumberland, Wis. The pint-size dairy farm girl is not only well-known in the industry but also serves as a true inspiration, as she embodies strength, grit and perseverance," reports Karen Bohnert of Dairy Herd Management. When Brynn was 18 months old, she contracted an infection that went septic, and she eventually had to have amputations. But she has not lost her spunk. "Brynn is a true farm girl—she helps lead heifers, feed hay, and wash cattle as they prepare for shows. She has even called dibs on which heifers she wants to show in the future."

"Man With a Hoe" (1860-62) by Jean-François Millet
(The J. Paul Getty Museum photo via WSJ)

Rural life can be diverse, beautiful and brutal. Jean-François Millet's monumental "Man With a Hoe" (1860-62) "has enjoyed popular acclaim as an empathetic image of hardscrabble labor in a rugged, agrarian landscape," reports Mary Tompkins Lewis of The Wall Street Journal. Lewis offers inquiry and thoughts on the work and the artist who grew up in a small town. "Millet's painting of a beleaguered farmworker shocked viewers when it was first shown in 1863 Paris, but it has proved to be an enduring image of relentless toil."

Rural Assembly sets online gathering Wednesday, June 28

The Daily Yonder

Rural Assembly Everywhere, the virtual gathering of the Rural Assembly, will feature conversations with rural leaders and allies, including Anderson Clayton, the youngest state political party leader in the nation.

Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic party, is one of several rural leaders and allies scheduled to be part of the free, virtual event from 1 to 3 p.m. ET Wednesday, June 28.

This year’s Everywhere is focused on rural people who are working toward safer, more connected communities. It is the fourth virtual event for the Rural Assembly, which has been hosting gatherings across the country since 2007.

Rural Assembly Everywhere will be broadcast via the Crowdcast platform. Attendees will be able to connect with one another before and during the broadcast through the event chat.

“Everywhere is the virtual analog to an in-person Rural Assembly,” said Rural Assembly Director Whitney Kimball Coe. “Even in a virtual space, we feel like we can create an experience that inspires and strengthens our connections to one another across Zip codes and culture.”

“The theme of ‘safer, more connected rural communities’ gives us an opportunity to explore how people and places are taking care of each other and affirming the dignity of one another–through arts and culture, policy advocacy, organizing and gathering, big and small acts of care. The stories from Everywhere remind us that rural people and places are extra and ordinary and essential to the future of our nation.”

The event will spotlight other rural voices through video stories and conversations:

• Appalachian author and Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House in conversation with his friend the Rt. Rev. Brian Lee Cole, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee. House has written seven novels; his most recent, Lark Ascending, won the 2023 Southern Book Prize and the 2023 Nautilus Book Award. In 2022 he won the Duggins Prize, the nation's largest award for an LGBTQ writer.
• Highlander Center’s Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and Allyn Maxfield-Steele will talk about the center’s work in the South.
• Sam Schimmel and Jonathan Blair, co-creators of a documentary-media and public-engagement initiative, "American Creed: Citizen Power," a follow-up to the 2018 documentary "American Creed" from Citizen Film – will discuss how they are working to build safer, more connected communities, the barriers they face, and their advice for other young rural community organizers.
• Stories from rural organizations and initiatives, including the Catwalk drag show in Fergus Falls, Minn.; Good Neighbor Missouri, Welcoming America, the Equal Justice Initiative, Main Street America, which helps revitalize older parts of small towns. and StrengthenND, which hekps nonprofits and rural communities in North Dakota.
• Artists Brett Hill, Eliza Blue, Cody & Alex, and Torrey McDowell will share stories and musical performances.

Registration for Everywhere is free. Visit www.ruralassembly.org/everywhere to register.

The Rural Assembly and The Daily Yonder are part of the Center for Rural Strategies.

Barry Blitt, reclusive rural cartoonist, starts a show Saturday

Barry Blitt (New York Times photo by James Estrin)

Barry Blitt, perhaps the most frequent cover artist for The New Yorker magazine, is a reclusive type, but on Saturday he will help open an exhibit of some of his more recent illustrations, plus "never-before-seen drafts and unpublished work," at the Minor Memorial Library in Roxbury, Connecticut, where he lives, reports Jamie Larson for Rural Intelligence, a mostly online publication for rural areas north of the city. The show, “Pen & Angst & Watercolor,” will run through Aug. 5.

His rendition of King Charles III is featured
in the story about Blitt in Rural Intelligence.

"Blitt’s mind has wrought some of the New Yorker’s most recognizable covers, but the man himself usually shies away from any and all public attention. The exhibition is the third Blitt has done at the library and though he admits he gets agoraphobic at events, he’s grateful for the support and encouragement," RI reports. “I’m treating it as an obligation,” Blitt said.

Blitt, who was born and raised in Quebec, attended the Ontario College of Art and Design, worked in advertising in London, “came home defeated,” and moved to New York in 1989, RI reports: "In 1993, tired of the noise, he moved to Connecticut – first Riverside, then Washington Depot, and finally Roxbury, where he has found a nearly tolerable level of seclusion."

Larson adds, "Though his lumpy portraits of presidents and political creatures are his most recognizable works, Blitt says he’s getting tired of drawing the same old disgusting politicians every week for The New Yorker's pages, online his weekly Blitt’s Kvetchbook and for Airmail magazine. He's glad to be showing a collection of his own selection at the library."

Rex Brasher painted more birds than Audubon, and wasn't an enslaver; his art says, 'We could learn a lot from birds'

Brasher’s hand-colored print of screech owls (Rex Brasher Association)

Bird-art lovers who would like to elevate someone other than John James Audubon to the pedestal of America's best-known bird artist should look at the works of Rex Brasher, "the greatest bird artist you've never heard of," writes Philip Kennicott of The Washington Post. "Born in 1869, Brasher left an enormous body of paintings, almost 900 large-scale watercolors documenting American bird life and habitat, that became the source material for a monumental 12-volume compendium of hand-colored reproductions published as Birds & Trees of North America. . . . He penned a hand-illustrated autobiographical account of his early forays by sailboat to document waterfowl from New England to Florida."

Brasher was "a modest man who lived much of his life off the grid, which may be one reason he isn't more famous," Kennicott adds. "But his life's project to document American birds, an effort to outdo Audubon that began in the 1890s and continued into the 1920s, was celebrated in its day, with an exhibition at the Explorers Hall of the National Geographic Society in 1938. . . . But Brasher was very much a man of the 19th century. Despite periodic efforts to revive his work, his legacy — closely observed, naturalistic renderings of animal life — still suffers from having been out of step with the avant-garde and experimental art of the 20th century."

A hand-colored print of tree sparrows by Brasher (RBA image)

Brasher's art, once rediscovered, may enjoy renewed prominence in the bird-art world. "The Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, which owns some 800 of the original watercolors, is planning to make them more accessible to the public with exhibitions in a new building," Kennicott writes. "The efforts of the Rex Brasher Association include digitizing and publicizing his work. . . . And a new urgency about the fragility of the natural world may make people today more sympathetic to rediscovering his legacy. . . . Brasher may also benefit from growing awareness that Audubon, to whom he was often compared, was a complicated, often odious figure. . . . He was an enslaver and deeply contemptuous of the abolitionist movement."

Much like each man's character, there is a distinct spirit to how Brasher and Audubon present their bird renderings. "The difference between the artists' work is like the difference between a grand aristocratic portrait and a psychologically nuanced character sketch," Kennicott adds. "Audubon gets the dress and regalia right

Brasher with a sketchbook (RBA)

, and his birds project a powerful, self-fashioning sense of their own presence and importance. Brasher's birds live contentedly in their own world and don't need to perform or impress the viewer. If Brasher sometimes tends to moralize when he writes about birds, it isn't Aesopian. The moral is almost always the same: We could learn a lot from birds."

"The art world is more capacious today and less interested in perpetuating the hierarchical distinctions that award lower status to subcategories of representation, such as bird art," Kennicott opines. "Brasher's love of birds, articulated in his writing and manifest in his painting, speaks with fresh vigor to anyone who believes that an essential part of art is looking, studying and seeing fine distinctions in the world. Perhaps he was motivated to outdo Audubon's work as a naturalist. But if birds had a say in this, they would almost certainly prefer Brasher."

Flora/fauna quickies: How snails travel so far, pet-inspired art, what to do when baby bird falls from a nest, and more

Sybil Gorby with an heirloom tomato she grew
in her garden. (Courtesy family photo)

Big-vegetable photos aren't just for rural weeklies. The Washington Post spotlights Sybil Gorby, 92, who has been planting tomato seeds from the same lineage since 1965. "Sometimes, the seeds turn into giant heirloom tomatoes, including one from last year's harvest," reports Sydney Page. Gorby's daughter, Sandy Marody, "shared a photo of her mother holding the large fruit in a Facebook group called 'Appalachian Americans.'. . . . People were quite impressed with the photo of Gorby proudly cupping the supersized tomato in her hands."

The "alpha wolf" myth has a long history as a paragon of power and dominance. But new research shows the myth is false. Researcher David Mech describes the wolf as "one of the wildest and shyest of all the animals in the northern wilderness," reports Rivka Galchen of The New Yorker.

Thom van Dooren wonders this about snails: "How do organisms that are so sedentary end up being so incredibly widely dispersed?" Find out how these notoriously slow animals get around.

Robin fledgling (Photo by Jeanette Tasey, Audubon)

A baby bird is out of its nest. Now what? Do you attempt to help? Walk away feeling bad but not wanting to make things worse for the little guy? This timely article gives some advice. 

As a child, Jessica Gauley, a kayak tour operator, once romped about Honey Island Swamp in Louisiana. Now she's working to reclaim a wetland, reports Anya Slepyan of The Daily Yonder. "Poisonous pollutants from industrial plants had turned nearly 10 acres of the healthy, primeval swamp into a toxic wasteland. . . . She calls the area the 'kill zone' because of the contaminants' toll on the local wildlife. . . . Gauley began cleaning up the kill zone, one kayak-load of trash at a time. . . . . a tour group she lead offered to help her. . . .The zone still has a long way to go, but Gauley has already started workshopping a new name for the area: the resurrection swamp."

Calling all pet artwork! Beth Novey of National Public Radio zipped out a missive asking for submissions, "We were curious to see what other pet-inspired artworks were out there, so we asked you to share some of yours, and dear readers, you did not disappoint. Below is just a small sampling of the hundreds of masterpieces we received." They've got a cat snow sculpture, "The Goatie Boys" Christmas drawing, Meow Lisa, and artwork with real horse hair.

Billy the Goat was a popular sight on Lake Cumberland
in Southern Kentucky. (Photo courtesy of Matthew Blum)

A huge Kentucky lake has lost one of its longtime fauna friends. "Billy the Goat, a wild creature who had made his home along the busy shores of Lake Cumberland, is being mourned and remembered by the legions of lake users who had taken a shine to him, after recently being found dead, apparently by gunshot," reports Christopher Harris of the Somerset Commonwealth Journal. "And like Billy's exploits in life, the news of his death has become something of a local viral sensation."

There's just no explaining some couples. "A rescue dog and goat are best friends. A shelter put them up for adoption as a pair," Cathy Free of The Washington Post reports. Jennifer Federico, director of animal services at the Wake County Animal Center, told Free, "It's a weird duo, but it works for them. Who are we to judge? They obviously love each other."

Quick hits: Chestnuts, horses, igloos, poinsettias, karaoke, cancer vaccines, vertical farms, fantastic beasts, kids' books

How to build an igloo in 10 steps.
(Art by Gil Martinez, New England Today)

This is our last Rural Blog quick hits of the year: from cheer to overcome the holiday slog to discussions by karaoke enthusiasts. Here's to remembering the good and heading into 2023 with hopeful hearts.

When it snows, build an igloo. Rural New Englanders know how.

The American chestnut tree is not quite extinct, and the struggle to bring it back to its former glory is ongoing. To celebrate the chestnuts part in rural history, roast some that Nat King Cole or Mel Torme would be proud of. This Masterclass can help.

Everybody's favorite animal ought to be a horse! Here's how to convert the world.

A cure to cancer? How about a vaccine to prevent cancer? For some cancers, yes. Here's how they work.

In many produce sections, there's often not much to pick from. One company aims to remedy that by building indoor vertical farms, each capable of producing seven tons of greens daily. 

J.K. Rowling isn't the only one with "fantastic beasts." The New Yorker has some lovable, imperiled fantastical beasts drawn by a great illustrator. 

Indigenous to Mexico and Central America, poinsettias herald the festive spirit of Christmas. Read the history of how this shaggy-leaved plant became cherished holiday decor.

Glenn Highway tree (Photo by Bill Roth, Anchorage Daily News, via Washington Post)

In south-central Alaska, which has about five and a half hours of daylight right now, commuters to and from Anchorage may never see daylight -- but they see the Glenn Highway Christmas tree.

The holidays can be lonely, cold or filled with family that stress you out. Holiday movies and songs can help, or at least distract, The Daily Yonder has it covered.

Planning a karaoke night? Here's the ultimate guide to finding your go-to karaoke songs with the help of reader suggestions, a panel of karaoke enthusiasts and Pandora music analysts.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff are back!  For gift ideas or delightful 2023 reading, The New York Times Best Children's Books of 2022 is here.

Quick hits: PG&E charged with wildfire manslaughter; meatpacking workers say their injury reports were ignored

Grasshoppers in the Field, created by artist Gary Greff in 1999, is one of seven sculptures along the "Enchanted Highway" (which has no road number) near Regent, North Dakota. (Photo provided)

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email heather.chapman@uky.edu.

An artist has single-handedly turned a 32-mile stretch of highway in North Dakota into a tourist mecca of art called the Enchanted Highway. It started in 1990 in Regent, a farming town struggling from economic troubles and a declining population. Local teacher-turned-artist Gary Greff decided to try to make the town into a tourist destination, so he began erecting large metal sculptures by the roadside. See how things are going for Regent now.

A social-justice activist raised in rural Montana has launched a project to train white people who have never thought of themselves as activists to organize and confront racist policies in their communities. It's not an issue of white guilt, he says, but rather because most people don't benefit from our current social structure. Read more here.

California utilities giant Pacific Gas & Electric has been charged with four counts of manslaughter and other felonies for allegedly causing 2020's deadly Zogg Fire. PG&E is accused of not properly maintaining the vegetation around equipment, which allowed a sickly tree to fall onto power lines and start the fire. This isn't the first time PG&E has been found responsible for a wildfire: In 2020, PG&E pleaded guilty of 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in the 2018 Camp Fire, after it was discovered the company did not maintain electrical equipment in rural areas. Read more here.

Native American tribes demand 'immediate action' from the Biden administration to restore the boundaries for Bears Ears National Monument after Donald Trump shrank it by 85%. Read more here.

At one of the nation's largest meatpacking plants, workers say their complaints of serious injuries were ignored or downplayed, reports the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. One man was pushed to work with what turned out to be a fractured vertebra. Read more here.

USDA releases thousands of historical watercolors of American fruit and nut cultivars for free download

Arkansas Black apples paintings from 1895 to 1921. More than half the images in the USDA archive are apples.

Between 1886 and 1942, the Agriculture Department commissioned artists to document quickly changing fruit and nut cultivars across the United States at a time when color photography wasn't widely available, Sebastian Smee reports for The Washington Post. A recently published book features many of them, but the USDA has also made the more than 7,500 paintings in its Pomological Watercolor Collection available to the public, downloadable in high resolution to capture every gorgeous detail.

Yenjerto bananas; most bananas sold
today are Cavendish (USDA image)

The most striking aspect of the collection is the "extraordinary diversity" of the cultivars. That's comforting at a time when broad cultural forces often drive us toward homogeneity, in cuisine and elsewhere, Smee writes: "You probably won’t find Arkansas black apples, Coloway mulberries or Belle Angevine pears in your local supermarket ... So to be reminded, as this book does, of the astonishing diversity to be found in a sphere that uniquely combines nature and culture is uplifting. Long live the Fraud plum, the Golden Gate strawberry, the Memory grape, the Chinese Shaddock pumelo, the Wagner avocado, the Paradise banana, the Dancy tangerine and the Lisbon lime. Let their irregular shapes, their unique aromas, their blushing colors and their gorgeous names remind us of all that we stand to lose if we don’t value precisely what is strange, singular, foreclosed upon and factored out." Read more here.

Rural Assembly Everywhere virtual festival Oct. 26-30

Rural Assembly Everywhere, a virtual festival for rural leaders, advocates and allies, is coming up Oct. 26-30. It's organized by the Rural Assembly, a Center for Rural Strategies program that connects more than 400 organizations and individuals nationwide focused on improving rural policies and communities. 

Rural Assembly director Whitney Kimball Coe said it was critical for such people to be able to gather, even if it couldn't be in person. "Family meeting feels like an appropriate metaphor for what we’re trying to accomplish with Everywhere," she told Tracy Staley of The Daily Yonder. "We’re calling everyone together, from all places, all regions, all sectors, and backgrounds because it’s going to take all us committing to the future together, and we don’t leave family behind."

The festival will feature a diverse line-up of speakers, panelists, artists, and happy hour discussions. "The keynotes, panels, and breakouts will address both current and longstanding issues, such as the 2020 election, the pandemic, gender and race, climate change and resilience, and rural and Native youth leadership," Staley reports. "The event will also include artists from across the country who will weave songs, poetry, film, and humor into the program throughout the week."

Registration is free. Click here for more information or to register.

Covid-19 art contest at N.C. community paper went global

Grand prize winner "Free Masks Take One" by Lani Chaves of Pittsboro

A North Carolina community newspaper recently held an art contest that invited readers to submit original art about life during the coronavirus pandemic. But the Chatham News + Record soon began receiving entries from all over the globe, bringing the world "a little bit closer" at a time when the need for cross-cultural understanding and cooperation is ever more important.

The contest was "designed to find the iconic image to define the era of covid-19," writes University of Kentucky associate journalism professor Buck Ryan, who helped launch the contest. Ryan, the director of a civic-engagement project, is doing a case study of the News + Record, which he views as a model of success for community newspapers here and abroad.

Duke University visiting scholar Siqi Zhang, president of the North Carolina Chinese Scholars Sino-US Exchange Association, helped promote the contest in China and elsewhere. Entries in the categories of Food, Heroes, and Love came from as far away as Russia, China and Bangladesh, all depicting what life looked like for people during the pandemic. Click here to see the winning entries.

Can the arts help save rural America from the recession?

"Far from major population centers or cutting-edge cultural trends, galleries, museums and craft breweries have collectively brought life — and cash — back to rural communities devastated in the aftermath of the 2008 Great Recession and by longer-term decline," Stephen Starr writes for Ozy. "Now, these communities are counting on art to keep their economies going amid the crisis spawned by the coronavirus pandemic."

The arts can help improve the local economy, according to a 2019 National Governors Association study. About half of rural counties have seen population declines since 2000, but experts are predicting that more people will move from cities to smaller towns because of the increasing cost of living in urban areas and the possibility of working from home. Active arts and culture scenes could help attract former city dwellers, Starr reports.

Many rural arts programs have received pandemic funds. The National Endowment for the Arts, an independent federal agency, "has announced $75 million in relief funds to arts organizations. State governments, commissions and universities are also pumping millions of dollars into small-scale rural arts ventures," Starr reports. "Such initiatives are paying dividends. In 2015, arts and cultural initiatives contributed $67.5 billion to states where at least 30 percent of the population live in rural areas. According to the Rural Establishment Innovation Survey, residents in rural counties that are home to performing arts organizations earn up to $6,000 more than people who live in rural counties without such platforms."

Quick hits: Appalachian Trail mural project; how a Texas town bounced back after losing its Walmart

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

A rural Wisconsin doctor fights to manage patients' opioid use amid the addiction crisis. Read more here.

Proposed bipartisan legislation would expand federal housing aid to rural volunteer firefighters and first responders. Read more here.

An op-ed writer writes about why rural voices must be included in the renewable energy debate. Read more here.

Here's how one small Texas town rebounded after it lost its Walmart. Read more here.

An art project reflects the beauty of nature through murals in towns along the Appalachian Trail. Read more here.

A town with moxie and a history of slavery dedicates a statue of a native, a pioneering black woman journalist

Members of Alice Allison Dunnigan's family pose with her statue in Russellville, Kentucky, after its dedication Friday.

By Al Cross

Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

University of Kentucky

     In a little park amid the main intersection in downtown Russellville, Kentucky, stands a monument to the Confederate dead of Logan County, which borders Tennessee and before the Civil War had an economy based on slavery. No one pays much attention to the monument and its statue of a soldier anymore; business in the town of 7,000 no longer revolves around the square at Fourth and Main.

     Six blocks away, much more attention is being paid to a newer and more remarkable statue, of an African American woman who rose from poverty in Logan County to become the first black woman accredited as a journalist to the White House and Congress: Alice Allison Dunnigan, who died in 1983.

     The statue was dedicated Friday at its new home, the Struggles for Emancipation and Equality in Kentucky (SEEK) Museum, which occupies several lots and buildings in the heart of Russellville’s main African American neighborhood. A new walk running diagonally from the corner of Morgan and Sixth leads to the bronze of Dunnigan, looking up from a copy of The Washington Post and seeming ready to ask a sharp question.

Photo by Amanda Matthews, sculptor

     Sculptor Amanda Matthews “captured the true essence of Alice: her determination, her grace, her love for journalism and her love for people,” said Deborah Catchings-Smith, president of the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority and vice president of operational risk management governance at Citibank.

     Dunnigan became Washington bureau chief of the American Negro Press in 1947 and was the first black journalist to travel with a president, on Harry S. Truman’s whistle-stop campaign in 1948.

Sonya Ross, who was the first black woman to cover the White House for The Associated Press, told the crowd at the dedication, “I have been able to have the amazing career I’ve had because Alice Dunnigan had the audacity to believe in all possibilities for herself, and by extension, all black people and all women, and in particular black women.”

     Another female African American journalist, Zirconia Alleyne, the editor of the Kentucky New Era at nearby Hopkinsville, emceed the event. “The more I learn about Ms. Alice Allison Dunnigan, the more inspired I am,” she said after Dunnigan’s oldest grandchild, Alicia Dunnigan, gave her biography.

     “She used her position as a journalist and political connections to expose injustice and discrimination and keep these uncomfortable issues before the public, the nation and the political establishment of the country,” Dunnigan said. “She was an amazing woman, not afraid to speak truth to power.”

     She said President Eisenhower ignored her “because of her tough questions on civil-rights issues” but President Kennedy called on her, and she asked whether his administration was going to do anything for some tenant farmers in Tennessee “who had been evicted from their homes because they had dared to vote in the last election and were forced to live in tents.”

     A few months later, the farmers got relief from the Justice Department, Dunnigan said. Later in 1961, her grandmother became education consultant of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity and worked in government until she retired.

     Alicia Dunnigan remembered her grandmother as “strong, intelligent, hard-working, persistent – some would say stubborn” and someone who “cooked delicious Southern meals,” drank bloody Marys and smoked a pipe.

Sonya Ross delivers the keynote address. (Photos by Al Cross)

     Ross said, “In some folks’ mind, black girls like Alice do not have what it takes to be a bona fide American hero. Essentially, if they come from tucked-away places, if they start life with virtually nothing, if they live life with virtually nothing, and leave here wrapped in invisibility. The truth is, Alice Dunnigan was a bona fide American hero.”

     Beneath towering shade trees on a hot, sunny day, Ross said, “This is indeed just a beautiful moment. Do you all feel like, this palpable, amazing love? . . . I see why she had so much moxie. This town has moxie.”

     The gathering, which attracted people from hundreds of miles away, was a product of the SEEK Museum and Historic Russellville Inc., led by lawyer J. Gran Clark. He said it got the money for the statue from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, created by the founder of E.R. Carpenter Co., which has made polyurethane foam in the town for 50 years.

     Clark told the crowd, “There are a lot of people that care about this, that recognize that we have a shared history, racially, and it’s something that needs to be talked about, and learned, and digested.”

He said Southern writer John Edge compares the history of slavery to the game of Whack-a-Mole: “That’s what the South has always done about the history of slavery: It comes up, you knock it down. You never deal with it; you never address it. It never gets to stay on the surface.

Emcee Zirconia Alleyne and civic leader J. Gran Clark

     “So what we’re hoping to do is not just slavery, but our whole American history of race relations, to let it come up, to take that history that’s been hidden and buried, and share it, learn from it, and hopefully get to be better people and better communities.”

     For some, the event had present-day currency. “President Eisenhower put Alice on mute for two years,” Ross said, “and today President Trump tries to put our sister journalists on mute for doing their job of questioning his authority.”

     Catchings-Smith said that Dunnigan were here today she would say “Supporting the Fourth Estate does not reflect political bias, but rather is our right under the United States Constitution to have freedom of thought and expression. . . . She understood very well that without a free press, individual freedoms are at risk. She understood that ethical journalism and freedom of thought and expression are essential to our very own democracy.”

Small town in Western Kentucky dedicating statue to honor the legacy of African-American journalist Alice Dunnigan

A small county-seat town in Western Kentucky will honor native daughter Alice Allison Dunnigan (1906-1983), the first African-American woman to receive White House press credentials, with the dedication of a bronze statue Friday, Aug. 2.

Alice Dunnigan statue in her hometown
(Photo by sculptor Amanda Matthews)

The Dunnigan statue will stand in Russellville’s civil rights park, at East Sixth and Morgan streets, as a permanent memorial. The ceremony will begin at 4 p.m.

Dunnigan was the daughter of a tobacco sharecropper and a laundress in Logan County. She attended segregated schools in Russellville and earned her teaching credentials at Kentucky State University. She taught for 18 years in Logan and Todd County schools in Kentucky before moving to Washington during World War II. She worked for the Associated Negro Press and became its Washington bureau chief in 1947.

“In August of that year, after she had successfully lobbied for a change in the rules of the U.S. Senate to allow African-American journalists to attend presidential press conferences, Dunnigan began her career reporting on all branches of the federal government,” O.J. Stapleton reports for the News-Democrat & Leader in Russellville.

Dunnigan traveled on a whistle-stop tour with President Harry S. Truman, paying her own way because her boss said women didn’t make such trips. “Her statue has been on its own whistle-stop tour, having been displayed at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., the University of Kentucky, the Truman Presidential Library and Museum, and Kentucky State University,” Stapleton writes. “The statue was created by Amanda Matthews and Brad Connell, owners of Prometheus Art of Lexington.”

Stapleton notes that Dunnigan received more than 50 awards and is in the Kentucky halls of fame for civil rights, journalism and writers, "and the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Black Journalists. She authored two books: A Black Woman's Experience from the School House to the White House and The Fascinating Story of Black Kentuckians: Their Heritage and Traditions."

Dunnigan’s story is an important one to teach because it gives people a reason to celebrate heritage, the community and the nation, Russellville resident and retired African-American studies professor Nancy Dawson told WKMS, the public radio station in Murray, Kentucky:  “With all the things we have going on politically, that’s more important … that people take pride and learn how to get past certain divisions and learn to work together. And I think these things do that.”

Quick hits: Impossible Burger goes big; online gaming without broadband; S.D. ag town tries to be a mural mecca

A mural on a 110-foot grain elevator in Faulkton, S.D.
(Progressive Farmer photo by Greg Lamp)

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

Burger King started offering the plant-based Impossible Burger in test markets on April 1. It's been such a hit that the chain now plans to offer the "Impossible Whopper" nationwide later this year. Read more here.

"Drug maker Gilead Sciences will give $11.3 million to help prevent and treat hepatitis C in Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina. That money is part of a five-year project aimed at a region that’s been hit hard by the viral disease," Lisa Gillespie reports for Ohio Valley ReSource.

A rural farming community of 700 in South Dakota has made a name for itself as a mural mecca, Greg Lamp reports for DTN/The Progressive Farmer.

Online gaming is difficult at best without reliable broadband, so a gaming company has come up with an innovative solution to ensure rural gamers can play. Read more here.

Ky. and S.C. nature photographer James Archambeault dies

One of the many James Archambeault photos of horse farms in Kentucky's Bluegrass Region, a favorite subject for him.

Famed Kentucky and South Carolina nature photographer James Archambeault died Monday at the age of 76 in South Carolina. His wife Lee said he had become ill on Jan. 30, possibly because of his heart condition, and had been unconscious since Feb. 1, Janet Patton and Cheryl Truman report for the Lexington Herald-Leader. Funeral arrangements are pending.

James Archambeault

Archambeault published his first book of photos in 1982, and published five more over the years, plus a slew of calendars, postcards, and more. He was most famous for his shots of rural Kentucky and Pawleys Island, S.C. He helped others see nature in a new light, his wife told the Herald-Leader: "I can’t tell you how many people have told me that they passed something and thought of Jim because his vision had taught them how to see things differently."

In an interview last year, "Archambeault said his gift as a photographer was patience: He scouted his shot and waited for the light. Some days he got nothing. Other days were full of photographic wonder," Patton and Truman report. "Archambeault’s style was no-filter, all-film, cultivated on long periods of waiting, alone with his thoughts, for the right shot to come. Many of those shots made Kentucky seem like a place descended from the heavens, gently touched by mankind." See some of his photography at his website.

New photography and story project provides an intimate portrait of the rural South

Richloam, Florida, resident Eric Burkes sits in front of a local store. (Photo by Eric Dusenbery)

A new photography and story project, Sidetracked, shows viewers a "local's view" of the rural South. In an interview with The Daily Yonder, photographer Eric Dusenbery talks about how the project goes past stereotypical images of the South "to explore the people and communities that are known only by the locals — to create a new sense of place." Read more here.

Small-town Vermont feud leads to tall middle-finger statue

Boston Globe photo by Michael Swensen

In Westford, Vermont (pop. 2,000), local mechanic Ted Pelkey's frustration with the state and local government led to him commissioning, and publicly displaying on a tall pole, a huge hand with a raised middle finger.

"For the past decade, Pelkey said, he has been attempting to move his business, Ted’s Truck and Trailer Repair, from the town of Swanton, 20-some miles away, to the 11.4 acres on which his home sits in Westford," Dugan Arnett reports for The Boston Globe. "The move would not only eliminate his daily 30-minute commute, he said, but save him thousands of dollars a year in rent. It would also require the construction of an 8,000-square-foot building on his property."

Town officials originally approved the move, but withheld the permit necessary to begin construction after a few neighbors complained to the state environmental court, Pelkey said. He estimated for the Globe that he has spent $100,000 in legal fees over the past 10 years in an expensive battle with Westford officials and the state's environmental court.

A few months ago, Pelkey, 54, said he got the idea for the middle finger sculpture as a way to get back at the town. He paid a local sculptor $3,000 to create the middle finger salute from a 7-foot-tall chunk of pine and hoisted it onto a 16-foot pole in his front yard, Arnett reports. Locals immediately noticed; some were horrified, but most thought it was funny.

Pam Sargent, who works at a local deli, told Arnett the town should "capitalize on it" and proposed selling t-shirts featuring the sculpture that say "Westford's Number 1."

Town officials were less amused, and told Arnett in emails that Pelkey "has a history of directing animosity toward town employees and town volunteer boards" and said the case is “definitely not a tale of David v Goliath."

Pelkey figured he'd be ordered to take it down in a few days, but it turns out that, because the piece is considered public art, the town can't make him. Arnett sums it up: "The bird, in other words, is free to soar. And it has."