Arts in a farming community

Jul. 31—(NOTE: This article originally appeared in our annual Progess edition but was not posted online at that time.)

GREENSBURG — A local retired teacher and artist has grown her love of the arts to promote progress in her community over the last several years. With two state-level awards and a Teacher of the Year under her belt, Beverly (Bev) Wilson found another way to honor her community and family through her art.

For her second Hoosier Women's Artist award, Wilson submitted a farming photo of her late father, Dan Wilson. The photo also includes Bill Ploeger, known to most as Pump or Pumphandle, and Jim Miller with his team of mules. The three were reenacting the binding of the wheat with a restored antique wheat thresher and binder.

"As my dad aged, he began restoring antique equipment so he could reenact farming practices from days gone by," Wilson said. "He enjoyed restoring the equipment and re-enacting age-old farming practices with such a great passion that I became passionate about photographing those events."

Wilson said right before her dad passed, he commented that he would probably soon be forgotten. She said it seemed like such a sad thing to say.

"I think he is helping me from up above to make sure he isn't forgotten, at least not any time soon," Wilson said of her father. "I wish my dad was here to see the mural and to know that a picture of him with his friends, doing what they loved most, was now going to hang in the Indiana Statehouse."

The Hoosier Women Artists competition was established in 2008 to celebrate the importance of the arts in Indiana's communities and showcase the work of talented female artists throughout the state.

After nearly 40 years, Wilson recently retired from teaching. She now works for the Sisters of St. Francis in Oldenburg as a photographer and artist. She spends her days photographing picturesque Oldenburg and working alongside the sisters.

Her first Hoosier Women Artist award was for a photograph of an empty room in the right tower of Oldenburg Franciscan Center, where S. Mary Edna Rose (Rohr) spent many hours later in her life as a resident of Oldenburg Franciscan Center.

According to a Daily News article by Bill Rethlake written shortly after Wilson won the award, Rose lived in St. Louis, Missouri, where she went to grade school at Holy Trinity School. She then attended The Immaculate Conception Academy at Oldenburg for high school. She entered the convent in 1917 and then ministered in New Mexico. After suffering an injury to her leg, she spent the next 21 years in a wheelchair and asked to be moved to the top floor of the building. Sister Rose found solace in this simple room that looked out onto the picturesque town of Oldenburg.

Wilson also painted the agricultural mural of the four seasons of farming on the building at the corner of E. Main and N. East streets in Greensburg. Her father can be seen on a John Deere tractor in the mural, still farming as long as the mural exists.

Wilson said that at the height of his career Dan farmed more than 5,000 acres, had his own trucking company, and had livestock: Hereford cattle, hogs and horses. He grew fields of hay, wheat, corn and soybeans. He also grew Pop Weaver popcorn and Nancy Beans for tofu.

"I never dreamed I'd be able to paint an entire building that would tell the story of my dad's farm," Wilson said. "I just got up one day and decided to do it. Half the time I didn't know what I was going to paint as I got on the lift with all my supplies. It was like someone just grabbed my hand and painted with it."

The photo and the mural are ways her father will not be forgotten. She said photographs are so important because one day they may be all that's left of a person.

This year's winning photo will be displayed in the offices of Lieutenant Governor Crouch, Indiana Secretary of Education Dr. Katie Jenner, Indiana Auditor of State Tera Klutz and Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush as well as in the office of First Lady Janet Holcomb in the governor's residence.

Through her passion of the arts and love for her community, Wilson has grown the artistic outreach of small-town Indiana. Photos from the same collection as this year's Hoosier Women Artists photo can be seen upon entering New Point's Midtown Diner, a favorite breakfast and conversation spot for her father and other local farmers. The mural at E. Main and N. East streets is still on display. And Wilson can often be found in Oldenburg, taking and sharing more photos of the growth and of the many arts in that local community.