“I hope that telling and preserving my Garlic Flats stories will keep the past alive. I want to chronicle what it was like to grow in this place. Life was simpler back then. Basic. No indoor plumbing. We hauled water from a local standpipe. Our houses were simple and functional. We planted big gardens and we ate well. We were people of several cultures, each with its own peculiarities, exuberant inventiveness and unorthodox thinking. We were a family of makers. Our hands were always making things. The prairie landscape and my love of gardening shaped my life and how I look at the world and how I express myself through art. And that is part of this story too.” —Vic Cicansky, 2018