As people across the state and the country prepare to cast votes for president on down, one Kansas artist is remembering the struggle for women’s suffrage.
Phyllis Pease of Manhattan is creating a mural for the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka of what she calls “suffragist trailblazers,” and she will be on the Bethel College campus Oct. 25 to talk about her work.
Bethel’s Department of Visual Arts and Design and the Newton chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) are sponsoring Pease and her presentation, “‘Rebel Women’: Suffragist Trailblazers in a Kansas Statehouse Mural,” Oct. 25 at 11 a.m. in Krehbiel Auditorium in Luyken Fine Arts Center.
The presentation is free and open to the public.
Rachel Epp Buller, Bethel professor of visual arts and design, learned about Pease and the mural through the Newton AAUW. She offered some funds available for visiting artists, and the invitation went out and was accepted.
Pease grew up on a small family farm in Kingman County, the youngest of 10 children of Helen M. Garibay and William E. Coon.
She has a bachelor of fine arts degree in graphic design from Kansas State University. After graduating in 1987, she worked for Willoughby Design, then moved out of state with her family for other job opportunities.
“This is when I started painting,” she said, “while still working as a freelance graphic designer. My paintings were large-scale acrylic, mostly figurative.”
Ten years later, in 1997, Pease and her family returned to Kansas, settling in Manhattan. “The college community has proven to be a wonderful place to raise children and explore my craft,” Pease said.
She has worked on a variety of commissions, both public and private, while participating in gallery shows in Manhattan and regionally.
Her most common medium is oil. She continues to paint large-scale figurative pieces that tell a story or comment on the human condition. She also creates art pieces designed on salvaged furniture that complement the paintings.
Pease has also “ventured into entrepreneurship,” as she said, in recent years. Five years ago, she and her daughter opened a bakery called Little Batch Co. and, just this past February, opened Parkside Station, a full-service restaurant.
Of the mural “Rebel Women,” Pease said, “It is an honor, as a Kansan, a woman artist and a first-generation American, to be working on a project celebrating these amazing Kansas trailblazers.
“Rebel Women” is an 8-foot-by-19-foot oil on canvas painting, which “calls to light 13 Kansas women who showed strength, courage and tenacity in seemingly impossible situations,” Pease said.
“It took decades, hundreds of miles of travel across dangerous territory, and a single-mindedness [by] all of these women to gain what they knew was their right [to vote] as citizens.
“My hope is that this painting will bring to light the untold stories of these women and inspire generations to delve into more of our state’s diverse cultural history.”
Of the several dozen figures in the painting, the 13 most prominently featured are Anna O. Anthony (Leavenworth); Luttie Lyttle (Topeka); Anna C. Wait (Lincoln); Lilla D. Monroe (Wakeeney and Topeka); Annie L. Diggs (Topeka); Laura M. Johns (Salina); Clarina I.H. Nochols (Quindro); Lizzie S. Sheldon (Lawrence); Caroline Langston Hughes-Clark (Lawrence and Topeka); Mamie Dillard (Lawrence); Jane L. Brooks (Wichita); Lucy B. Johnston (Topeka); and Minnie J. Grinstead (Larned and Liberal).
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel was the first Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center, in 2021. For more information, see http://www.bethelks.edu
