Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1472975
21 seven animals, flower gardens, and a one-room cabin on her grandfather's homestead property. She is also completing a book, Dymphna the Dowdy Dragon. "I have been drawing the illustrations for a long time," she says. "The topic is especially relevant to today's society. It is a story of a dragon of one color living in a community of dragons who are multi-colored. The prejudice she faces drives her away, and she looks for a place to live where she feels accepted. The illustrations are what encouraged me to write the story of this character." This project began as a children's book but evolved into a multi- chapter junior novel. Kathi is currently also weighing her options for hosting what she calls a "pre-death party," a sendoff as fun and colorful as she is—as she puts it: 'no black balloons allowed.' "Funerals are filled with regrets," says Kathi. "If we meet before death, people have a reunion; I get to see them, we say goodbye and don't have to regret a thing." "I choose to see death as a new adventure," she says. "I have traveled many places in my lifetime. This will be a road not yet taken." Members of her artistic family and her former students are helping her prepare for that road. "I have a cousin making my casket, and my nephew—a great metal worker— is creating a grave marker. I am planning to have 1000 origami cranes in my casket, and the very large collection of round rocks I have collected over the years placed on my grave. I have friends and former students who have agreed to be sure these things are done." Even as she reflects on her past and plans for her future, Kathi is content to draw inspiration and joy from the roads she's taking today. "I still love to drive the roads of Wyoming, cast my eyes across the plains and feel grateful for having grown up here. I breathe it in with every sunset, blizzard, sunny or windswept day and see it as a glorious image waiting to be made into a piece of artwork." "I breathe it in with every sunset, blizzard, sunny or windswept day and see it as a glorious image waiting to be made into a piece of artwork." — Kathleen Clymer