People often ask Jerry Ratway what can he draw.
But the question should be what can’t he draw?
The Olathe-based artist has a three-ring binder with hundreds of pages full of his artwork with everything from old barns to bees and butterflies.
For Ratway though, he is just doing what he loves most.
“To me, this is fun. I’m having the time of my life,” he said.
Ratway has brought some of his work to Eudora as Fuse Candle Bar is now selling greeting cards with his original artwork on them.
Fuse Candle Bar owner Emily Young said she is thrilled to bring in some of Ratway’s work.
“He’s just so talented,” Young said. “And it fits well in our store. Just having a little piece of local artwork in your house or to share with a friend, or if someone’s in town, you know, give them a little note that they can remember the town by.”
Ratway was brought to Eudora after he learned about all of the historical buildings the town has to offer.
Specifically, Ratway came to take a picture of the old Holy Family church on Ninth and Church Street.
Young said Ratway came to the store and asked if he drew the church and printed it on greeting cards if she would be interested in selling them.
“I said, ‘Of course, we love local artists,’” Young said.
Not long after that, Ratway emailed his drawing of the church to Young.
“I said, ‘What do you think?’ and she said, ‘I’ll take them,’” Ratway said.
Ratway has now delivered about 20 cards to Young with his drawings of the church, butterflies and birds on them.
While he never expected he would come to Eudora to sell his artwork, Ratway isn’t surprised by anything in his life.
“Everything in my life happens for a reason,” Ratway said. “I’m not the one driving this bus.”
Ratway has been drawing his whole life, but has only been an artist for three years. Ratway worked in flooring for 53 years before the pandemic basically shut down his career.
Most of his career was spent at William Volker & Co. before the business shut down in 1980. Ratway’s last stop was at Weber Flooring.
Ratway said he wasn’t ready to retire and sit in a rocking chair the rest of his life. So, his wife advised him to get back into drawing.
It took Ratway some time to adjust to his new career as an artist after being in flooring for so long.
“The hardest thing to do when I first started doing this was calling myself an artist. I never did that until this part of my life sort of opened up,” Ratway said. “I was a flooring expert. I’ve been flown all over the world to look at flooring situations from manufacturers.”
Ratway drew throughout his flooring career. He said he was always fascinated with snow and what snow would do to an object he was drawing.
But Ratway said his first love in drawing was barns.
“The older, the more rundown the better,” he said. “So, I started drawing barns. I had no plans, certainly not to have a company. Certainly not to sell anything. This was just to occupy my time until I figured something else out.”
Ratway said he started posting his artwork on Facebook, which is when things started to really take off.
“Maybe there’s something here,” Ratway said.
One of Ratway’s favorite drawings is one he drew of an old barn across from his house that was built in 1870. However, a developer bought the land the barn sat on and tore down the barn.
Ratway said the barn still lives on in his mind through his drawings of it.
“I’ve drawn it twice. I’ve got pictures. I’ve saved the barn,” Ratway said.
Ratway didn’t just save the barn for his own pleasure, but also for the family members whose ancestors owned the barn.
“She and her husband just moved off the property last December,” Ratway said. “I did the barn for him and sold it to him. He gave it to his wife for a Christmas present because her birthday is like a week before Christmas. She looked at that barn and just started crying. A lot of those memories are stored up in somebody’s old barn.”
Another client who had Ratway draw an old barn inspired Ratway’s company name: Preservation Through Art.
“He said, ‘You know what you do? You sell memories. You preserve the past,’” Ratway said.
As a history buff as well, preserving old buildings means a lot to Ratway.
Ratway said he has always been fascinated by American history and has read several books on it as well as Kansas history.
“I’m just attached to it. I’ll stop and read every roadside historical marker,” Ratway said. “I’ve read every one of those in eastern Kansas. I just want to know what’s there or what happened here.”
Eudora Area Historical Society Executive Director Ben Terwilliger appreciates Ratway’s dedication to local history and hopes his greeting cards will get more people interested in Eudora’s history as well.
“Maybe that’ll promote downtown Eudora a bit and bring more people downtown, which will hopefully help local business as well,” Terwilliger said.
Terwilliger said he wants to help Ratway by providing historical photos and facts about the buildings Ratway will draw.
Reach reporter Jack Denebeim at [email protected]
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