Kelly Yarbrough is a Kansas-based artist whose work is an ecosystem of mixed media drawing, arts administration, and environmental engagement. Her studio practice centers on large-scale, mixed media drawings that reflect an ongoing relationship with the tallgrass prairie—one of the most endangered ecosystems on Earth. Her work invites a sense of intimacy with place and seek to cultivate a deeper literacy of the landscapes we call home.

Kelly holds an MFA from Kansas State University and a BA in Art and English from Austin College. In 2016, she founded the Tallgrass Artist Residency, a program that hosts prairie-connected artists in the tiny rural community of Matfield Green, KS. She has connected with communities across Kansas through work with the Kansas Arts Commission, has taught foundations courses at Kansas State University, and served as Board President of Shadowcliff Lodge in Grand Lake, Colorado, helping to launch a new artist residency program. Between 2023-2025, Kelly participated in the inaugural Wildfire + Water Residency at PLAYA Summer Lake in Oregon. She is an Artist INC peer facilitator, founder of the Manhattan Seed Swap, a so-so gardener, and a pretty good dog mom.

Her writing and artwork have been featured in publications such as The New Territory Magazine, Contra Viento, and Symphony of the Flint Hills Field Journal, and she has presented at TEDx Austin College.

Growing up in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas formed my understanding of meaningful places as being somewhere else: a national park; out-of-state family; cultural hubs in far off cities. Kansas has become my chosen home because it exemplifies, to me, the opposite of that notion: It has shown me how to value deep roots in one’s own place. This shows up for me in the tallgrass prairie which is the most altered ecosystem on the planet and whose remains are primarily in Kansas. Much of my studio practice celebrates the vitality, beauty and wildness of this often overlooked landscape through intimate and richly-layered large scale drawings.

I am also fascinated by the resilience of rural communities, and how my contemporaries are showing up in these spaces in innovative or unexpected ways. This interest drives my work leading the Tallgrass Artist Residency program based in Matfield Green, KS (pop. 50), and other socially-engaged projects such as Burn Ball and the Kansas Field Arts Forum.  I want my work to inspire others to become more land literate of their own places, and be moved to cherish them.