Barton County native Randy “RAMA” Oberle can be found at the local farmers markets selling his colorful “rattle-can art,” created with spray paint and multiple media on scraps of aluminum or other found and repurposed items. Oberle does all of his painting outdoors, so it’s only fitting for his gallery to be the courthouse lawn during Thursday’s Summer Street Stroll market or the library parking lot, where a farmers market is open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings.

The son of Urban and Luann Oberle, Randy was born in Ellinwood but grew up and went to school in Claflin. He has two brothers and two sisters.

Over the years, he has worked many outdoor jobs in Kansas and Colorado. He has worked on construction, including building underground houses. He has done some doodlebugging and other oilfield jobs, and helped set the grade for a railroad spur. He returned to Barton County about a year ago, moving from Hutchinson to Great Bend.

“I paint with found objects and sometimes I make my own,” he said. “I paint with interference and with lack of interference.”

A self-taught artist, Oberle said he lets his imagination guide him.

“Some things I just decide I want to look at, so I make it,” he said. Many of his pieces are abstract, while several fall into a category he calls, “improbable circus acts,” such as an elephant jumping through hoops of fire. One, inspired by a classic story about Siamese elephants, told by comedian Tim Conway many years ago on “The Carol Burnett Show,” shows two elephants with trunks connected, standing on a trapeze wire. On the back of each elephant is a unicyclist and they are juggling stars.

“I’ve started painting sunflowers since I came here,” he added. When asked what is special about Great Bend and Barton County that brought him back, he said, “It’s kind of home.”

Oberle signs his art “RAMA.” If you google the Big Nasty Press Blog (based in Hutchinson) and scroll through the tab “Hindsight 2020,” you can read one of his poems on a collaborative portfolio that includes the contributions from 20 artists and 20 writers, printed on an 18-foot scroll of toilet paper. These expressions reveal the artists’ feelings about 2020, “one crappy year.” Oberle is also a contributor on some of the blog’s other portfolios.

Closer to home, he is a member of the Artists at Large group that meets at 4:30 p.m. on the first Wednesday of every month in the basement of the Great Bend Public Library.

He doesn’t claim any clubs or civic memberships outside of artists’ circles, but he said he believes in lending a hand when he sees someone in need. “I help people when I can.”

Community Connections is a regular feature of the Great Bend Tribune, showcasing people who live in the Golden Belt. We welcome readers to submit names of individuals who are active in the community that they would like to see featured in a future story. Send suggestions to news@gbtribune.com and explain their “community connections.”