We were no stranger to snow and ice this winter. So meet one artist who wanted to get a refreshing look at warmer climates right here in northeast Kansas.

A case of cabin fever made topeka artist Janet Bailey rethink her next works of art.

"It was a brutal winter and I decided I wanted to do something different. So I thought where can I go that's nice and pretty and I thought, I'd try the rain forest right here in Topeka."

So she sat down at the rain forest in the Topeka Zoo for an entire afternoon and waited for inspiration to strike.

"The birds walked around, the flamingo was first. The flamingo was great because it would stand in one spot and let me do the drawing."

And then the eye of a different bird caught her eye, the mysterious victoria crowned pigeon.

"That's what I thought made the bird so unusual, his red eye," Bailey admits. "So that's why I wanted to make it in black and white. Those sounds became kind of eerie to me, so i thought I bet they would be eerie at night."

Bailey chose to make collages to represent the beautiful and exoctic rainforest landscape.

"It gives you more freedom and you can play around with the pieces but you instinctively know when you're finished. I want you to look at it more than once. i want you to say 'oh, that's interesting.' and look at it and ponder it and i would like an air of mystery."

You can find many of Bailey's works at The Collective Art Gallery in the Westboro Mart.