Rural Rhythm

The city of Avon, Indiana, is quickly being developed but there are still farm fields and wide open spaces. The artist of Rural Rhythm, Megan Jefferson, is attracted to painting those wide open spaces – particularly Midwest landscapes – because she grew up in a small farming community in Northwest Ohio. Skies there are big, colorful fields are everywhere, and the land is flat so you can see for miles.  The first time she visited Avon, the site of the mural, she was reminded of the rural landscape of her hometown. To create this mural she drove the back roads, feeling nostalgic and took photos of her favorite beautiful vistas. This mural is inspired by one of those photographs and its goal is to acknowledge, preserve, and celebrate the rural beauty that still exists in the town (and in the artist’s heart).

Megan Jefferson is a painter and has been actively creating work since receiving her BFA from Miami University in 1998. She has exhibited extensively and sells her work to designers and individual patrons. She describes the process of her work in this way: “I let the process define the artwork and describe my working process as a dance and conversation. I place down some color, and as certain areas and shapes evolve I will “answer” those happenings with additive or subtractive methods. This dance continues until each painting feels right. The result is thoughtful, intuitive, spontaneous and reflective.” Most of Jefferson’s work is landscape painting.

Rural Rhythm was created through a partnership between Jiffy Lube of Indiana and the Arts Council of Indianapolis. The partnership is an opportunity to showcase local artists, beautify commercial corridors with original public art murals, and encourage viewers through positive images while expressing the goals of Jiffy Lube’s programming: Growing People Through Work.