Bringing Public Art to Downtown Garden City

Ariana Wheet has lived and made art in Garden City almost her entire life. She is a graduate of FHSU with a BFA in Studio Art. Primarily working in watercolors and pen and ink illustrations, her art is mostly influenced by fairy tales and stories of mythology she read as a child. Her goal with creating art is to explore different perspectives in familiar stories. When she isn’t painting or making comics, she can usually be found with her nose in a book.

I am a retired middle school teacher so therefore I call myself the worlds oldest 8th grader. I am a mixed media artist because I love to play with all sorts of art materials. I am also a member of 2nd Avenue Art Guild inDodge City.

I am a mixed-media artist based in rural Kansas whose work is rooted in nature, memory, and quiet resilience. My paintings blend ink, acrylic and embroidery inspired linework to explore the spaces between fragility and strength. Branches, roots, insects, and layered landscapes appear often, acting as visual metaphors for connection, growth, and the stories we carry beneath the surface.

My process is intuitive and tactile. I build in layers, allowing color and mark-making to respond to one another until a piece feels alive. Each work holds movement and texture, inviting the viewer to slow down and look closely.

Cephas Lee, also known as Cephas Lobmeyer, is an up-and-coming artist from southwest Kansas. At a young age, he excelled at drawing and creative approaches. Growing up in a split household, Cephas relied on art to escape his chaotic family life. His love for comics, superheroes, and the stories they tell was a significant part of his life. After dropping out of high school and getting his GED, he moved to Missouri but lost touch with art. At this time, he was dealing with mental health issues that led him to seek help and to take a look at his future. He was given a chance to move back to his hometown to attend college, where he received a scholarship to study visual arts. This reignited his passion for art and led him to explore more ways of creating using oil paint, watercolor, sculpture, and printmaking mediums. Cephas’ current work primarily focuses on figures and portraits, maintaining a strong connection to his love for comics. Cephas is completing his art associate degree at Garden City Community College and has plans to continue his education.

Born and raised in garden city, I grew up loving anything art, painting, sculpting, and even paper crafts. Throughout high school, I was pushed to test my limits and keep working on my portfolio. I am so very proud to have gotten the chance to add the banner to the list! Although I've worked with big projects and with acrylic before, this has made me think things through a bit more. I have worked hard with color over the years to find my own personal touch of "subtle yet bursting with color", trying to push the limits of realistic but colorful. I have enjoyed painting this year's banner a lot and I can't wait to see all the others, as well as hopefully continue on in the years to come!

Jennifer Baffoe began her art journey in 2008 in South Dakota. She experimented with the Alla Prima style with brushes and oils passed down from her Swedish grandmother. By 2016 she was painting animal portraits and landscapes for her Midwest clientele as a means of fundraising for a school in Ghana.

Her art has been inspired by her life in South Dakota, Washington State, Kansas and her travels around the world. Her life's story has been woven into each painting.

Jennifer has artwork in galleries and private collections across the Midwest and Pacific Northwest. She also currently teaches classes in Western Kansas.

Robin is a visual artist and workshop instructor whose abstract work is built on bold color, texture, and process. Working in acrylics, mixed media, or oil and cold wax, she creates spontaneous, expressive pieces with deliberate cut-in lines, marks, and shapes. For Robin, the layering process is where the work becomes familiar. She draws a direct parallel between that process and human experience: the many layers we carry, visible and buried alike.

Robin is an active presence in the Garden City, Kansas art scene, participating in local shows, area exhibitions, and fundraisers. Her work has been shown in multi-state juried festivals and galleries, earning recognition along the way.