Elizabeth Knabe Roe
Emerging Artist Award, Visual and Fine Art

As a student, Knabe Roe received scholarships from The Verna Wulfekammer Education Foundation and P.E.O. as well as a scholarship to study in France at Pont Aven School of Contemporary Art and a grant to study in Italy with an Italian papermaker, Paola Luchesi. She also applied for and received University of Missouri’s Undergraduate Research Mentorship Grant. This grant was applied to research and fund an art installation which earned her honors in the BFA program.

At Washburn University, Knabe Roe, received a grant from the Kansas Studies Colloquium to research native Kansas Plants and making paper from a variet of species. She used this research to create and teach an art studio class that combined Kansas plant ecology and papermaking. This research was also incorporated into outreach programming for public schools and community groups such as 4-H Clubs.

Knabe Roe has exhibited both nationally and internationally. She has collaborated on exhibits, shown solo and participated in group exhibits. She currently has relief sculptures in a group exhibit, Washburn University Art Faculty Exhibition, at the Mulvane Art Museum, Topeka, KS. 

She collaborated with two other artists to create a year-long (2008-09) installation, Niche: Nature Morte and Simulated Garden, for the newly renovated Art & Science Commons, Spooner Hall, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS. This exhibit challenges the viewer to examine human impact on the environment. Knabe Roe’s installation, Ubiquitous, resembles root structures and is woven from the recycled plastic bags over a core of junk mail. 

She also has a year-long solo exhibit, Living in the Dead Zone, in the interior entryway to the Mulvane Art Museum. This wire and fabric installation addresses her interest in environmental issues in general and, specifically, pollution and our Kansas watershed.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Betsy Knabe Roe's interest in art and art making follows from its ability to give form and expression to human aspiration. Suzie Gablik refers to the artist as a catalyst for change with "...the potential to reconfigure our intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual orientation on the world..." Art is a reflection of thought defining aspects of intuitive self-awareness which is the essence of human experience. It should challenge the audience to examine their existing views of the world.

Growing up in Mission, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, Knabe Roe enjoyed spending a great deal of time visiting rural farms owned by relatives. Her parents fostered her love of nature by their own interests in gardening and camping as well as allowing her to explore natural areas to study and collect all types of native fauna and flora. Her continuing love of nature and her previous experience as a sustainable, organic farmer in the Ozarks influences her current artwork and fuels her interest in environmental issues.

Roe's artwork researches the mysteries of human consciousness as related to the mysteries of the natural world. Creating symbolically sacred spaces through large-scale, site-specific fiber installations, both indoors and out, she seeks to affirm the interrelatedness of all individuals, human and non-human. Her research is based on ecological concerns, philosophy and literature with source materials from libraries as well as scholars and experts. The concepts of temporality and changeability provide avenues of exploration in her work. This has led Knabe Roe to explore contemporary trends to mix various media and work across disciplinary boundaries.

As an example of "sacred space", Knabe Roe's 2006 installation, Reconcile, was a large-scale, stitched fabric and paper construction which formed a landscape resembling the Flint Hills of Kansas. The exterior fabrics were dyed with native plants echoing the colors of this unique place. She also incorporated paper created from these Kansan plant materials. The interior was lit from the floor through a spiral of salt surrounded by altered leaves. Inside, the walls were painted white which resembled deep roots and also references a sacred symbol of life. The life of the prairie is underground and ecologists have referred to it as an upside-down rainforest. She based this piece on her research of the ecology of the Flint Hills prairie and the peril of losing this natural area to development.

In the evolution of her artwork, Knabe Roe is concerned with increasing her capacity for compassionate response. She likes to stay open and relishes encountering new porblems. She wants to always feel free to ask fresh questions of herself and be sincere with the work.