Growing up in the Ozarks of Arkansas is more about the sense of belonging to the hills we call home than it is the actual act of aging. It’s about getting married on land that’s been in your family for 3 generations, getting bundled up to head out in the record cold snap in order to feed the pigs you’re raising to sell or being born into a family that’s raised cattle on the same soil for five generations and learning to ride horses like most babies learn to walk. It’s ties to the land than can be felt more as a heartbeat that the ground has instilled in you rather than just a place where you grew up. Relationships with certain bends in the road, the summer nights playing with neighbor friends, the part of the river you were baptized in as a teenager, the callused feet that never saw shoes in summer, front porches with Papas that are no longer with us, or the day you made friends with a tarantula passing by and named her Arriba. Moments, adventures, and stories relating to the surrounding landscape define the everyday. The milestones kids in the Ozarks relish in as they grow are part of the cadence of the hills that gives comfort when another turkey season rolls around, when the first fish of spring takes the hook, and when your summer bug bite itches covering your back are scratched by mom. Growing up Ozarks is a feeling that’s hard to put into words, it’s a connection to the rhythm of the hills, to family, it’s part of each heartbeat.
The Ozarks encompass a region of limestone bluffs and oak/hickory covered hilltops that includes large portions of Arkansas and Missouri, and smaller parts in Oklahoma and Kansas. I live in the area surrounding the free-flowing Buffalo River in Northwest Arkansas, so this is where the stories I tell come from. I am a mother of two young children with a husband that travels the region and country fighting wildfires, so for me, travelling isn't an option at this point in my life. Telling visual stories has become my outlet and passion as I navigate motherhood and 'Growing up Ozarks', part of my 10+ year long term project 'Ozark Life', is a project that has become many things for me. It's a way to get to know the people around us, a way for me to uncover and 'see' the magic in the cadence of everyday life here, a way to live an adventure without leaving our home area, a way to be a mother and still pursue a professional passion. Like Anja Niedringhaus, I try to find the courage within to tell the stories that both help me to understand and process and help others to see the nuances of life here. The hills truly dictate the rhythm of life here for my family and others who call this region home and that's a unique thing in modern day America.
