By Lori Brack

By asking artists to respond to the theme “Figure of Speech,” a curator acknowledges two things: that metaphor-making is a discipline, and that language, text, and visual art are closely allied as forms of expressive communication.

That’s the prompt the Lincoln Art Center sent to its circle of artists for the venue’s 10th invitational exhibition, and the result is a collection of 24 works by Kansas-based artists. 

Within the show, there are two categories of artworks. First, pieces that reinterpret the artists’ chosen verbal idiom. Second, works that poetically address the metaphor that visual art provides viewers. Keeping these two approaches in mind offers a useful way to understand the show.

Juror David Woolard, a Hays art collector and art enthusiast, chose three works to be honored with cash awards: Lindsborg artist Michaela Valli Groeblacher’s ceramic lamp “Let Your Light Shine,” Salina artist Sandy Wedel’s stoneware, beeswax and cloth “Deafening Silence,” and Topeka artist Barbara Waterman-Peters’s oil on canvas “As the Crow Flies.”

In his remarks, Woolard said, “I don’t have an art education, but I like to learn the processes artists go through. I’ve always thought of art as artists telling a story.”

Groeblacher created her column lamp out of carved and glazed terra cotta on a wood base surmounted by a shade. “This is the first thing I made in a long time that’s not deep and layered, and the first lamp I’ve ever made,” Groeblacher said. “The invitation came, and I decided I’m going to let my light shine, and since this one, I’ve made more. Lamps are smaller than my usual work. As I age, I need to make things that are easy to move around,” she said after the awards were announced at the opening on August 28.

Another award winner, Waterman-Peters, highlighted the use of language as stimulus. “I’m a writer also, so I love words, and figures of speech go into those. I have been doing political work for about the last ten years, and I couldn’t resist putting in a little nod to that. It doesn’t look good for the country, but as the crow flies, if we take a direct path, we can get back to where we were.” Her small oil painting depicts a crow foregrounded in full flight over a road heading toward a landscape on fire against dark clouds of an Old Testament sky.

Wedel’s elegant ceramic niche contains a stripped-down figure reminiscent of a Greek kouros, obscured or protected by cloth wrappings. Titled “Deafening Silence,” the piece might be a boat for travel to another world, a tomb, or a womb not yet free enough for birth.

The creative force behind the Art Center and this year’s theme is Joyce Harlow, the center’s director since its opening 33 years ago. “‘Figure of Speech’ was an idea I’ve had for several years,” she said. “I always liked the theme to be part of the artwork that lets the artist play with the idea. This gave artists many choices of media and design options.” Harlow contributed a delicately painted and constructed nature sprite fiber sculpture titled “All My Eggs in One Basket.” 

An oil, graphite, charcoal, and crayon painting by Miltonvale artist Linda Foster bears a quote by Rumi, the 13th century Muslim mystic and poet: “Even when tied in a thousand knots, the string is still but one.” Lush brushstrokes that construct an eloquent dark red central twisted shape offer another path out of contemporary social, political, and economic tangles. “I knew from the beginning I wanted to deal with knots, loose ends, twists, and turns,” Foster said. “I was thinking about art mirroring life or life mirroring art, and the energy of the twist and turn. The Rumi quote came after.”

Salina artist Pam Harris personifies sunflowers in her striking charcoal, pastel, and acrylic “Two’s Company, Three’s a Crowd.” A season of intensity has dried the blossoms, and the background’s hot colors radiate deep summer. The work suggests the awkward discomfort of a third party edging into the composition.

Some responses to the theme are lighthearted, such as Salina artist Brad Anderson’s interactive “Have You Lost Your Marbles,” which asks viewers to write a sentence about “what was happening when you thought you might be losing your marbles.” Participants choose one or more marbles from an open container to add to the jar of sentences.

Another work that incorporates text is Salina artist Connie Burket’s crayon, textile, and marker “Flocks and Oddities.” Burket adds to the familiar phrase “birds of a feather flock together” with “and sometimes an odd duck waddles in.” Along with the words, human figures and birds fill up the colorful canvas. Only one of the humans is red.

Rick Frisbie, also of Salina, inscribes each of the five dancing and floating figures with a vowel in his intriguing acrylic painting “It Goes Without Saying.” Karla Stangel Prickett, also of Salina, incorporates aged, hand-written file labels such as “Laundry Soap,” “Soup,” and “Frozen Dinners” written by a practical organizer in “One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Treasure,” a mixed-media collage.

Other compelling pieces that imply a metaphorical approach include Great Bend artist Terri Horner’s “In Sheep’s Clothing,” a large wood carving featuring animals, symbols, and other surprises among its natural tree limb and root shapes. 

Tom Schmiedeler, of Lawrence, entered the only photograph in the show. Titled “Turning of the Tide,” he discovered the subtle palette and patterned striations of sand and water at Apple Cross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. 

Longtime friend of the art center, Barbara Solberg, also of Lawrence, is represented by a mixed-media piece “Going Out on a Limb.” Solberg’s colors, painted texture, and composition reflect the frightening experience of being alone in a risky situation. 

You can see the full exhibition for yourself and dive into its metaphors through October 17.

The Details

Figure of Speech: 2026 Invitational Exhibit
August 28-October 17, 2026, at the Lincoln Art Center, 126 E. Lincoln Ave. in Lincoln, Kansas

The Lincoln Art Center is open noon-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 9 a.m.–noon Saturday, or by appointment.

Admission is free, and the facility is accessible to people with physical disabilities.

Learn more about current and upcoming exhibitions on the Lincoln Art Center website.

Lori Brack is a writer and arts worker based in Lucas, Kansas. She is the author of three books of poems and many essays in anthologies and journals. Links to her writing and full bio are at www.loribrack.com.

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