Rena grew up about 15 miles south of Russell, Kansas. She claims central Kansas with its endless horizons, thunderstorms, the crystal clear Milky Way, buffalo grass, expansive cropland, and pockets of magical prairie as her home. She earned a BFA in Visual Art, Expanded Media, with a minor in Art History at the University of Kansas. While at KU, she took classes in history, literature, and archaeology and worked with science professors in addition to her studio and art history courses, so that when she developed projects, she could view them through multiple lenses. She loved having this breadth of knowledge at her fingertips. See Rena’s artwork here.