Elaine Buss is a visual artist. The Inspiration Grant will support the largest iteration of her “Breathe Before” wall installation series. The piece will be in a solo exhibit at Lux Center for the Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska in 2023. The surface motifs on these pieces will come from rubbings she makes of details and textures pulled from family homesteads in Southern Illinois, the country church from her upbringing, and Kansas City’s architecture and history. Together these places represent what she observes many from her generation experiencing: a further shift from a religious, rural life to a secular, urban life. The different motifs will play off each other: some will be specific and others more anonymous. Just like a person, the piece will be a sum of different places and experiences.