"Fantasy Butterflies" by Kris Fliehs

The Dacotah Prairie Museum presented a new multi-media art exhibit entitled
“Fantasy Butterflies” by Aberdeen artist, Kris Fliehs. The exhibit was open until July 18th, 2008, in the Dacotah Gallery on the second floor of the Museum. A reception in honor of the artist was held for the public on Saturday, June 28th from 1-3:00pm.      

Artist Kris Fliehs arrived in Aberdeen, SD, at age five and her growing up years were spent exploring art, music and dance in the area. Excelling in art class in high school, Kris was able to earn an art scholarship to Northern State University where she completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Commercial Art and in Business.

The very first “Fantasy Butterfly” was painted 20 years ago in preparation for the Senior Art Exhibition at Northern. The show was postponed for one year, from December 1990 to 1991because Kris was called to serve in the Persian Gulf. Her military career allowed her to travel extensively in the Middle East, South Korea, Costa Rica and through out the United States. For twelve years, Kris made her living as a custom framer and is now employed in Hotel Services. Throughout all of her career changes, the visual arts were always an important part of her focus and she continued to experiment and improve her art skills.

Kris Fliehs now lives in Aberdeen with her two daughters, Kailey and Kelsey, whom she credits as being her inspiration and “biggest fans”. The butterfly theme evolved from several sources. Her daughters have both fostered an acute fascination with butterflies since they were young. Kris and the girls traveled to Sioux Falls to La Sertoma’s “Butterfly House” in August, 2006, and it left an unforgettable memory. “Do you know,” Fliehs comments, “ that there are over 160,000 kinds of butterflies and moths whose species are named? They are so fragile and yet so complicated and their short life is filled with changes and stages...”  Artistically, Kris enjoys a variety of patterns, colors, and textures, which invite the experimentation of mixing media and techniques. At the present, Kris utilizes various combinations of these media in her pieces: watercolor, acrylic, oil pastels, markers, colored pencils, and ink.

The challenge of blending fantasy and reality and trying new approaches to the presentation has evolved into the pieces for this exhibition for “Fantasy Butterflies.”

For information on other past exhibits in the Dacotah Gallery, please click here.