photo by: Contributed

Lawrence artist Hong Zhang collaborated with the Volland area community on a dragon made of hay bales.

A 100-foot dragon in the Flint Hills is likely to turn a lot of heads this summer, but for the Lawrence artist who made it, the fiery creature is much more than a roadside attraction.

“It’s a perfect meeting of East and West,” Hong Zhang says of the massive hay-bale installation — and of dragons generally. 2024 is the Year of the Dragon in China, where Zhang is from, but she has lived for 20 years in Kansas, whose prairies, wheat fields, tornadoes — and now hay bales — have been the muse for much of her critically acclaimed artwork.

The dragon in Volland, an unincorporated community in the Flint Hills about 70 miles west of Lawrence, also represents a meeting of the artistic and the agrarian. Where the farmers who helped her create the installation likely see a hay bale and think “animal feed,” Zhang sees a hay bale and thinks “animal.” The sharing of those perspectives, the pragmatic with the imaginative, is what seems to make the work so meaningful for her — that and the sight of her family and friends from Lawrence working alongside local farmers to turn dozens of hay bales, cornstalks and colorful pennants into a fierce creature evocative of the Far East but also very familiar to anyone in the Midwest.

“It’s like my dream come true,” Zhang says. “I’ve always wanted to do a collaboration that reflects my love for the rural Kansas landscape.”

That collaboration included a number of curious onlookers as “word got out.”

“It became like a traffic stop,” Zhang says, as people heard about it and drove over to visit, some with ice cream and cold drinks in tow. Some observed how the passing trains in the area provided a regularly recurring “roar” for the dragon’s mouth, which was fabricated by Lawrence resident Mike Riggs.

photo by: Journal-World File

Lawrence artist Hong Zhang is pictured March 27, 2019, at the Fayman Gallery in Lawrence.

Zhang notes that Western and Eastern cultures both have dragon lore — for some reason people seem universally drawn to gigantic reptiles that fly and breathe fire — but the lore has some important differences.

In Western culture, the dragon often has negative, villainous connotations.

“It’s something that a hero fights,” Zhang says, something to be slain.

But in Chinese culture, the dragon represents luck, wisdom and power (as evidenced, Zhang says, by the fact that “dragon” and “tornado” — two supremely powerful forces — are represented by the same character in Mandarin).

“It’s the perfect symbol for rural Kansas too,” Zhang says, “because the dragon also represents the power of the rain, of water, to control agriculture.”

The temperamental creature can bring an ideal amount of rain, but it can also bring floods.

“There are a lot of dragon temples in China, especially in the rural areas,” Zhang says. “The farmers go there to pray for good weather and a good harvest.”

The dragon installation and an accompanying indoor show of Zhang’s charcoal drawings and Chinese ink paintings were made possible by the Volland Foundation, which supports various programs for artists and writers and especially projects that involve community collaborations.

“I thought the hay bale dragon was a great idea — to connect to the local community and culture and agriculture,” says Patty Reece, founder of the Volland Foundation.

The foundation came about after Patty and her husband, Jerry Reece, renovated the dilapidated General Store in Volland several years ago into a gallery that now functions as a nonprofit.

Zhang’s gallery show opening at the “store” will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday and will run through Sept. 22. On Sept. 21, just before the show closes, the gallery plans to feature an event with Chinese music, dance and a history talk.

The outdoor dragon will remain on display longer — until early 2025, when the Year of the Dragon will give way to the Year of the Snake.

photo by: Contributed

Lawrence artist Hong Zhang’s gallery show at the Volland Foundation will include charcoal drawings and Chinese ink paintings inspired by the rural Kansas landscape.