Artist of the Month

Decades ago, Glenda Drennen’s first attempt at watercolors didn’t turn out as she’d hoped. She stuffed all of her supplies in a shoebox and nearly abandoned them.

When a hip-hop duo decided to rap about clipping coupons, packing school lunches and changing diapers, they found their voice and fans around the world.

Risty Bryce puts his lips to a microphone in a middle school band room in Pierson, Iowa. It’s not his usual setting for a percussion performance, but today is special. For the first time, he’s seeing a seventh grade student, Kennedi Vondrak, play the bass drum, using a sound activated device.

Being one of those artsy “theatre geeks” didn’t make Lindsay Bauer very popular when she was growing up. But when she went to a conference a few months ago, she couldn’t sit down to eat because everyone wanted to sit by her.

Months ago, Lindsay Bauer got an email with a video link. She wouldn't normally click on such things, but this time she did.

A talented typography artist left the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation to attend a small Christian college in Sioux Center, Iowa. And more than 53,000 Instagram users have virtually followed her here.

Michael Frizzell used to need weeks or months to finish a painting, but now, in just 90 minutes, he has a painting of Biggie Smalls almost done.

Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs—it’s a mixed-up fairytale world in “Uh-Oh!,” a musical written and composed by Diana Wooley, CEO of LAMB Arts Regional Theatre.

Over the past two weeks, we’ve heard several poems by Jeanne Emmons, professor emeritus of English and writing at Briar Cliff University. She’s an avid canoeist, who found a well of inspiration from her humble boat.

"The Red Canoe Awakens to a Spider Web" is the last poem in her soon-to-published, 32-page book.

She can feel it shivering in the

slight breath of morning, between

the thwart and the rear seat, the filaments

radiant in that horizontal light, making

Jeanne Emmons penned her first poem in kindergarten. Hand-drawn, Crayon colored flowers rimmed the edge of the page. Written to her mother, who kept the note, it said, “You are pretty. Deep, deep pretty.”