CURRICULUM VITAE

Contact Information:

Rhonda R. Janke

Professor Emeritus,Department of Horticulture, Kansas State University

Phone: 785-236-1994, email Parideaza@gmail.com

Website: www.RhondaJanke.art

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rhonda-Janke

Artist’s Statement:

“My art focuses on the intersection of artistic expression, science, food, farming and sustainable agriculture, while also exploring issues of social justice and healing.  I feel that much of life is spent remembering what we already know.  Art is a pathway to that remembering.

I feel that materials used can be part of the message, and many materials come from my farm; wool from the sheep, paper made of weeds or apples, pigment from walnuts, hedge trees, herbs and  soil, and wax from the bees for encaustic.  Making the paint and fiber is as important as making the image.  I also see nature as a collaborator, not as a resource to be exploited.

In a series of recent projects, working with time and with soil to explore the process of decomposition has revealed a beauty in a process that is often hidden from view.  I approach nature, art and science with humility and a willingness to dwell in the unknown.”

Professional Memberships:

Ecoartspace - "Soil Dialogue" member

WEAD - Women Eco-Artists Dialogue - Board member (2024-present)

 https://directory.weadartists.org/artist/rrjanke

Education:

September, 2012, MFA-Interdisciplinary Art Goddard College

Port Townsend, Washington campus.  Advisers include Sharon Sisken (Berkeley, CA), Laiwan (Vancouver, Canada) and Seitu Jones (Minneapolis, MN).  Areas of focus included pre-historic art, community-based art, feminist art, sustainable, green, local and place-based eco-art, farming and art, and life as art.  The Goddard College offers a low-residency 5 semester MFA program designed for artists and other fully employed professionals.  Students come from both the U.S. and Canada for a 10-day intensive residency each semester followed by supervised work with an advisor.

1987  Ph.D, 1984  M.S. Cornell University

Research areas included crops, soils, ecology, and ruminant nutrition.  Dissertation title: “Weed Management in Established Alfalfa Based on Cultural Control of Crop-Weed Interactions,” Ithaca, N.Y. 197 pp.

1980  B.S.   Kansas State University

Major Agronomy, included classes in crops and soils.  Electives included women’s studies, and several undergraduate drawing, design, and art history courses.

Professional Experience:

2024-present                  Retired/Professor Emeritus, Kansas State University

2015 – 2024             Associate Professor, Dept. of Crop Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman

2014                    Sabbatical leave to Hashemite University, Jordan, taught organic and sustainable agriculture.

1999 – 2014                    Associate Professor/Professor and Extension Specialist, Dept. of Horticulture, affiliated faculty member Womens'
Studies program, Kansas State University

1994 - 1999             Associate Professor and Extension Specialist, Dept. of Agronomy, Kansas State University.

1992-1994                Director of Research, Rodale Institute

1986-1992                Agronomy Section Leader, Rodale Institute, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Pennsylvania  State University

1980-1986                Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Agronomy, Cornell University.

Farming Experience:

Owner and manager, Parideaza Organic Farm, Wamego, KS. From 1994 to 2015 (fruits, vegetables, sheep, poultry)

Raised on wheat and dairy farm near Chapman, Kansas, active participant in crop and livestock management

Activities related to art practice:

Education & Training:

Fall 2023;  “Introduction to ‘Citizen Artist’ and Art-Based Research Methods,”  Instructor: Lee Ann Woolery (on-line for 6 weeks)

Spring 2021;  “The Personal is Political-Art and Social Justice,” Instructor- Sarah Farahat, offered on-line from  Portland Community College Continuing Education

2010-2012– Masters in Interdisciplinary Art, Goddard College, Port Townsend, WA. Thesis title “Articulture – Unified FIELD Theory and Parideaza Farm: Sustainability at the Intersection of Art and Agriculture.”

2008-2010 Studio training in water-based media and color theory, Judy Love, professor emeritus, Kansas State University Art Dept.

1976-1980– undergraduate art classes in drawing I and II, design, art history

Presentation, Exhibits and Installations:

May 19-21, 2024, Co-convener of the session “Soil Health from Multiple Perspectives,” under the Soil and humanity – Transdisplinarity in Soil Sciences Division, with 8 speakers and 2 posters.  Also presentation in Florence, Italy 2024, “A brief history of the ‘buried cotton cloth assay’ use in science and art and current comparisons of diverse sites using metagenomic indicators.”  International Union of Soil Scientists, Florence, Italy.

May 22-23, 2024. Pop-up exhibit at Il Conventino, Florence, Italy with ecoartspace collaborators.  Title: “Dialoghi del Suolo/Soil Dialogues.”

December 2022.  Digital art included in "Earthkeepers Handbook."  https://ecoartspace.org/Sys/Store/Products/333903

June 11-14, 2014 in New York, NY at Pace University, 6th Annual AESS Conference, Theme: Welcome to the Anthropocene. Association for Environmental Studies and Science. “Sustainable Articulture – Two examples of integration of art and agriculture,” Poster Presentation with May Elfar Altamimi and Carolyn D. Tanner, Kansas State University.

Aug. 17-October 6, 2013 – “Collaboration with Soil,” 5.4.7 Arts Center, Greensburg, KS (solo exhibition) Included painting with soil workshop and public lecture, “Art and Agriculture,” Sept. 21, 2013.

 Sept. 1- Oct. 1, 2013 - Site-Specific Installation - "The Soil Remembers,"    Fort Worden State Park - Port Townsend, WA with collaborators Deanna Pindell and Dawn Sagar.  See: https://www.deannapindell.net/the-soil-remembers

April 26, 2013 – Spring Art Walk – Hays, Kansas.  “Collaboration with Soil” (solo exhibition), Gella’s Café.  (included two lectures on art and agriculture, “Science Café” on April 25 and Fort Hays State Faculty seminar April 26, 2013).

May, 2012, Prescott AZ.  “Sustainability at the Intersection of Art and Agriculture.”  Presentation at the Prescott University  Sustainability Symposium,

September, 2012, Port Townsend, WA,  – Graduation seminar and exhibition, Goddard College. Thesis title “Articulture – Unified FIELD Theory and Parideaza Farm: Sustainability at the Intersection of Art and Agriculture.”

Denver, Colorado, November, 2010. “Exploring Interdisciplinary Environmental/Place-based Art and Community Art from a Feminist  Perspective”  (Poster) Abstract published in proceedings. National Women’s Studies Conference Poster.

Workshops Conducted/taught:

 "Using Natural and Local Materials" - three-part lecture/workshop & field trip for Art 301/610 figure drawing/composition intersession course at Kansas State University, May, 2013 and 2012. 

                Lectures included making charcoal as bio-char, how to make paint from soil (gouache) and making ink/paint from plant materials.  Several local soils were collected on a field trip with the students.  Plant material (hedge tree, walnut and madder root) were brought in from my farm.  Students actually made their own paint and then used the materials as a resource for their drawings over the course of the 3-week intersession.

“Painting with Soil” – Beach Art Museum Open House for the Meadow Project – May, 2013

                Taught soil painting methods to kids and families in open-house resource table setting.