howdy
My name is Julie R. Neidlinger. The name of my business is Lone Prairie Art Works, which I have had since 1998. I am a writer, artist, and private pilot. My degree is in art and art history.
Though I now live in Bismarck, North Dakota, I grew up on a farm not far from the Canadian border. My family owns a Minuteman missile site, an odd fact that I discovered surprises people.
I love to read, write, paint and draw, ride horse, bake, hike, fly, and travel (especially road trips). I've been able to travel to Canada, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Nicaragua, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, several locations in the Caribbean, and all over the United States. But North Dakota is always home. There's just something about the prairie that won't let go.
What is Lone Prairie Art Works?
Lone Prairie Art Works is a North-Dakota based business that celebrates creativity and originality through a love of the tangible in a digital world. This is mixed with a love of place, both where we live now and where we’ve been, preserving the memory of both so we understand ourselves better. As people become minimalist and do everything “paperless” we are left with digital artifacts that are easily deleted, stuck on devices, and at the mercies of tech providers who determine how much we can store, what we can store, and if we’ll need to replace the devices or formats they are stored in. Click the wrong button and we forget how we got through life. Even worse, we rely on templates, filters, and trends to generate these digital artifacts, pretending they make something unique and original even though they make everything the same. It’s not easy being the truly unique person God made you to be in a world that encourages trends of sameness, or brutish attempts to be seen. Lone Prairie Art Works features products laced with humor and a love of North Dakota that encourage thoughtful creativity using what you have. You will find handmade items, assembled one by one, never to be exactly repeated again. There are blank journals to capture your travels, ephemera kits to spark spontaneous creativity, and stories to ignite your imagination. Join the celebration of the tangible and imperfect, that tell-tale sign that the human hand has been involved in creating something special. I want my love of these things—paper, books, reading, creativity, writing, North Dakota—to encourage you to do the same.
The history behind Lone Prairie.
Lone Prairie Art Works has been my creative art, writing, and products business since 1998, and is a member of Pride of Dakota, which supports North Dakota artisans and businesses. I have been writing on my own website since 1999, and "officially" blogging since 2002. The early website was built by coding HTML by hand for each page. My blog is (I think) the oldest still-running blog in the state of North Dakota, and though it has been on many different blogging platforms, the site name has never changed. I had a gourmet cupcake business, Lone Prairie Cupcakes, for three years. I've also been a pastry chef, school teacher, piano teacher, graphic designer, short-order cook, house cleaner, nanny, t-shirt designer, postal worker, newspaper photographer and reporter, secretary, investigator for a PI, copywriter, and virtual assistant/receptionist. I've helped my uncle in his welding shop. I worked and traveled with the international non-profit organization Nicaragua Resource Network - North Dakota for eight years. I got my private pilot's license in 2008, joined the Civil Air Patrol in 2009, and have been a member of the North Dakota Pilots Association (NDPA) as well as secretary (2011) and Vice President (2012). I was also a member of the North Dakota Aviation Council (NDAC) as a representative of NDPA (2011-2014). That means that you'll see a wide variety of topics and influences in my writing and what I create. I am an introverted farm girl at heart and am not always able to handle a lot of communication with people I don't know on social media. My apologies. It's not you, it's me.
What work do you do?
I work as an artist and freelance writer in many different mediums (art) and formats (writing). I've written blog posts, magazine articles, books, etc., sometimes as a ghost writer. My degree is in art and art history, though I've worked in many industries.
For personal blogging and writing, topics often include:
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North Dakota / rural life
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Faith (Christianity)
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Humorous everyday experiences
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Online life
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Work experiences / observations
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Creative / writing life
Books, magazines, email subscriptions, etc. that you purchase or receive will be of this nature.
Other freelance / contract work includes:
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Basic web design / maintenance
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Virtual assistant / receptionist / scheduler
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Custom art / design
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Ghost writing blog posts and books
