Cindy Powell Biography

“While attempting to capture what I call just the right light, I photograph each Flower for its own Full-face portrait.”

“Over the years I have completed Naturalist Training at Rowe Sanctuary and additional training through UNL Extension Service Master Gardener and Naturalist courses.”

“Courses at Central Community Concert Grand Island in Beekeeping prepared me to become a Backyard Beekeeper.”

“My love of Nature and of living things are reflected in the images captured in my photographs.”

“Thank you for sharing my World.

by Cindy Powell

Mary Jane Skala ~ Kearney Hub Article on Cindy Powell’s Exhibit

Cindy Powell doesn’t consider herself an Artist. She’s a crafter, gardener and beekeeper.
“I’m an Artist in my soul “ she said.

She’ll share this avocation when she exhibits photos of the flowers and bees in her garden in Wood River August 3, 2023.

Powell has worked for more than 40 years as a vocational counselor and employment specialist for the state of Nebraska Department of Education. She loves helping people with work related disabilities find a job or training.

But in the evenings and weekends, Powell comes alive in her garden.

She not only tends her flowers, she takes pictures.” I like causes. Once I wanted to save the world, but then I realized that all you can save and preserve is your own lot” she said.

Her lot is a double one in Kearney where she raises native and non-native plants without chemicals. She calls it “wild and wonderful “.

I realize I can’t get rid of all the plastic in the ocean, but I can do gardening and grow things she said.

She has day lilies, rose lilies, peonies, sunflowers, milkweed pods, tulips, poppies and more. Every day, she walks out with her phone and takes digital pictures – 20 or 30 or 40 of them. She keeps them all on her phone, arranged by date.

“Peonies start coming in May and then other things start blooming in succession “she said.

Some are native, some are non-native. She even has Portillo ground cover that she said, grinning happily, looks exotic when she gets within a noselength to take its picture. She’ll have goldenrod and cone flowers into the fall.

She also has fruit trees, including 5 apricot trees so she makes plenty of apricot jam. They don’t always produce, and with spring earlier this year, I didn’t know what would happen, but as fate would have it, they produce like mad she said.

I don’t like to waste a darn thing, and I can’t reach all the branches, but I pick what I can, she said.” I also make apricot ginger sauce and run around town giving it away”.

It was those apricot trees that started a garden frenzy. She wanted to plant hazelnut trees for a renewable program, so 8 or 10 years ago she ordered some Nebraska City Arbor Day Hazelnuts.
I got what looked like little sticks I planted them, and then they wanted me to report back on their progress. The first year, they didn’t grow a thing, but in year 3 they grew and produced not Hazelnuts but what turned out to be Apricots .

Powell also has a cherry Tree and 2 mulberry trees. She grows raspberries, too
Along the way, Cindy got interested in bees so she began doing research, then took classes in beekeeping at the Central Community College in Grand Island campus..
Now she has 3 beehives. She takes pictures of her bees too.

“My yard isn’t a groomed yard. I have big areas of wildness. My goal is to get rid of most of the turf she said. There are some grassy areas, but most of it is planted with plants and trees. Nothing grows under my apricot trees”.

She has continued to take classes ever since earning a degree in psychology from what was then Kearney State College (now the University of Nebraska at Kearney) four decades ago. She holds a master’s degree in agency counseling from UNK and has taken additional classes in business, human resources and more.

She has also been part of a quilting group and has taken classes in felting and watercolor.” I love to learn. I love art and creating” she said.

As for her upcoming art show she was invited to show her photography in Wood River
by Carol Hines at the Wildflower Art Gallery, a renovated and cozy art studio.

“I haven’t been trained in photography, but I’ve been told anyone is an artist if they create work and I’ve created work every day for the past 10 or 12 years”, she said.

She loves to cook and can too. Along with that apricot ginger sauce, she makes cherry shrub, an old recipe she soaks the cherries in vinegar and winds up with a refreshing probiotic drink.

“This whole connection with nature and the yard and the living things branches out to other beautiful opportunities for me. She said I love sharing them with other people.”

by Mary Jane Skala