By Wayne Kruse
The work of an artist who refused to let life fit neatly into one role will fill the Lee Dam Center for Fine Art during October.
“A Woman’s Place Is In the World” features the artwork of Shirley Sump and tells a larger story about a woman whose creativity shaped nearly every part of her life. She painted, sewed and wrote, drawing inspiration from the places she lived, the cultures she encountered and the world around her.
The Marshall County Arts Cooperative will celebrate Sump’s life and work during Senior Saturday from 8 to 10 a.m. Saturday, October 10, at the art center, 201 S. Ninth St., with her children sharing stories about their mother and her work at 9 a.m.
Senior Saturday is a program for adults 55 and older that combines breakfast, art and conversation. A complimentary breakfast of breakfast casseroles, biscuits and gravy, breakfast sweets, coffee and orange juice will be served from 8 to 10 a.m., giving guests time to visit and view Sump’s work.
Born in Clay Center in 1940, Sump grew up in Clay Center and Riley and graduated from Riley Rural High School in 1958. Her interest in art started early. She served as art editor of her high school newspaper and later said she had read every book in the school library.
Her life eventually took her beyond rural Kansas. Sump lived in Germany for three years before returning to the United States in 1966. Her family said those experiences gave her a broader view of the world and influenced the themes that later appeared in her work. She married Nedwin Sump in 1968, and the couple eventually made their home on 200 acres of pasture ground near Clay Center and Green.
Although Sump began creating art in high school, her work took on new focus in the mid 1970s when she began taking art classes through a rural urban art course program presented by Kansas State University. Working primarily in watercolor and acrylic, she explored subjects that included Native American culture, barns, ships, German villages, animals and still lifes. Much of the work in the exhibition dates from 1975 to 1984.
Painting represented only one part of Sump’s creative life. She was an accomplished seamstress who made quilts, aprons, toys, clothing and other pieces for her family. She also became a freelance writer, selling articles about embroidered samplers and recipes to publishing companies. Several of those articles and manuscripts are included in the exhibition.
“My mom never saw herself as someone who had to stay in one lane,” her son, Nolan Sump, said. “She loved art, culture and learning, and she encouraged us to keep learning, ask questions and not quit when things got difficult. Her paintings, sewing and writing all reflect that.”
Sump’s family describes her as a free thinker with an independent spirit and a strong belief that her children could accomplish whatever they set out to do. Her work also reflects a lifelong curiosity about people, places and cultures beyond her own community.
“A Woman’s Place Is In the World” may also be viewed at the Lee Dam Center from noon to 3 p.m. October 11, 18 and 25; 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. October 14, 21 and 28; and 4 to 6 p.m. October 15 and 22.
Additional information about the Marshall County Arts Cooperative and the Lee Dam Center for Fine Art is available at marshallcountyarts.org.
