Mary Welke

The Field and Fence Line Studies are part of my series of images about prairie and farmland, soil health and the restoration of soil using controlled burns.

The studies are created from memory after my trips to view farmland and prairie buffer zones around the farm fields. These dividing lines between prairie and farmland are often haphazardly fenced off to delineate property lines. The spaces and fences between field and prairie serve not only as physical and visual dividers of the soil used for the agricultural economy but also function as primary habitats for pheasants, other critters, native grasses, wildflowers, and pollinators who populate the area.

My studies do not reference a specific place or time but speak to the abstract notions of place, nature, and agriculture as well as the notions of ownership of the land.