Label
(from 2023.Art and Books)
Rubicon
Look: how Kushner’s oil on canvas floods myth, basic geography, memories of riding shotgun with my great-grandfather to pick up / drop off my mother at work on SW Jackson, across from the State Capitol. How the Kaw River framed the landscape of my childhood without me realizing. How we would cross the bridge to North Topeka to get burgers at The Pad or pickles at Porubsky’s and never think of our proximity to water in a town mythic for its flatness and fields. How even Kansans like me sometimes fall for it. But not Kushner, relegating the capitol to background, peaking behind trees, reflecting the clouds at dawn (or is it dusk? A lover once told me I never knew when things were beginning or ending), and letting the river run its natural course: a reminder that everything artificial will recede to prairie fields and Kansas Rivers, also Kaw, also Kansa, also Kanza: another reminder we are named after the land, after the Kaw Nation, rooted in language not our own, but we so easily claim without thinking, like a lifetime of living on lands we fail to see like the gray in green water.
- Gary JacksonLabel
"Perspectives from the Plains," 2025
To me, this piece encapsulates the beauties of Kansas. It captures the sunsets that paint the skies over Kansas rivers, creating a breathtaking display of colors that reflect off the water. It invites viewers to appreciate the serenity of the Kansas landscape, highlighting not just the visuals but also the emotional connection many have to this land.
--London Kelly, WU student