PATHS

Michele brings an artist’s eye to her photography. Despite showing early signs of artistic ability, she set aside her artist’s beret at an early age to pursue more pragmatic skills but never lost her sense for form, color and relationship. Those gifts were turned to photography after a life-changing trip to Yellowstone National Park.

For the past several years, Michele’s been honing her photography skills and extending her artistic vision. She credits the paintings of Lee Weiss, Marla Brenner and Rose Masterpol for informing her approach to photographic composition and narrative. Allusions to their work manifest in her photographs as they sometimes possess an impressionistic or abstract quality.

Byron may have had photography in his genes, with a father who took over 10,000 35mm film images in his lifetime. Byron supplemented the family knowledge with a number of photography and photo-journalism classes in college before setting aside his old Pentax film SLR after the shutter mechanism died.

Ten years ago he picked up a point and shoot camera, but quickly felt the old tug to do more than just take souvenir pictures. That led to his first digital SLR and a life-changing trip in Yellowstone. Always a writer, his visions of the world around him are influenced by the works of Willa Cather, John Steinbeck and many other writers giving his photographs a narrative quality.

Prairie Star Studios is a creative collaboration between Michele and Byron and all those who inspire us or who draw meaning from our work. Any creative endeavor requires finding new ways forward, the finding or making of new paths. Not every path works out, but with luck and practice, some do and we are able to navigate from the commonplace to the transcendent, to open ourselves to awe and wonder for the world around us.

Those acts of navigation are layered into our logo, both a star and a compass rose. Even as our ancient ancestors set off on journeys of discovery, heading for unknown shores, there are indications they used stars to navigate. On early migrations across the Mediterranean and the South Pacific, adventurers looked up to the night sky to help chart their way. Along the line, the compass rose came into use in that charting, used to show the cardinal directions and to orient the viewer for navigation and understanding the relationships of things.

We bring those two symbols together as a manifestation of our heart’s work and invitation to join us in exploring the paths to awe and wonder, to nurture and flow, to transcendence and, ultimately, to peace.

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