Picher OK is the historic center of the richest zinc and lead mines in America, fueling two Great Wars with munitions. Mining companies extracted billions, leaving little beyond rapacious rental agreements with Native People.
Today the Quapaw are left with a Superfund site, a scraped earth, and the remains of 70 million tons of tailings – cancerous chat, once used to top driveways and fill sandboxes. Chat was everywhere, and everyone was slowly becoming sick.
Reparations began in 1983, and continue through this day, yet the restoration of health is never repaid. The resulting relocation is a pattern continuing for almost 200 years.
Picher no longer exists as a community.
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the wider body of work.
For several years I shared a studio on Emma Street in Springdale, Arkansas where annually we would setup for a Flowers in the Studio event. These images are my favorites from this period.
White Rock Mountain Recreational Area offers one of the most stunning panoramas in the Natural State of Arkansas. It was a perfect place for in camera light painting at dusk one evening in 2015.
Eureka Springs, Arkansas is a favorite destination of mine due to its diverse community and rich history of natural springs. In 2026, I was in there in residency at Dairy Hollow Artist Colony for ten days.
