MORE KANSAS CITY...

Liberty Memorial is another landmark I remember from my youth... a tower commemorating the losses of the first World War, dedicated in 1921. An important museum was added when its foundations were restored & rebuilt at the end of the century... as complex as the world change it explores, it is a rare source, done well.

These forms fascinate me for their somber reflection... precisely the solemn mood with which I left the buried museum.

The story is poignant:

Two Assyrian Sphinxes guard the south entrance of the Liberty Memorial. “Memory” faces east toward the battlefields of France, shielding its eyes from the horrors of war. “Future” faces west, shielding its eyes from an unknown future.

I ponder inspiration toward possible bells...

 

Fortunately our brothers Jon & Michael were more than cheery guides for our day's varied adventures... at lunch I discovered the antique tile pattern signified to immigrant folk who could not read that this was a drug store...

We'd walked to a river access nearby the Arabia River Boat Museum, which Stephen & I had toured during some free time while attending the bell convention, I'll segue with a ceramic pitcher from the collection of an interesting archaeologic dig...

This boat carried an entire inventory for the winter's needs of a small town in Nebraska... Now thousands of objects being restored & displayed... preserving significant history.

Here are Jon & Michael playing in front of the Kemper Museum on our last visit...

Brother-in-Love Michael grew up in nearby Belton. He & Brother-Jon have lived in Kansas City all the 34 years of their relationship. We've enjoyed visiting their several interesting homes over the years... always being remodeled. BroJon has a well deserved reputation for making bold changes in a house. While we all got some version of that bug from Poppa Vic, Jon is the one still actively maintaining such passion... working on their own home plus another house as an investment.

Jon & I had a grand time when he came to Arizona in 1977 to help with my house in Sedona, which we ripped apart, added onto & quite totally remade. [I ought to continue the series describing my various studios by featuring Up-Willow.] We also built a deep relationship during that period when he was ready to come out. I became a more proper big brother with the one who was a youngster of 10 when I left the farm for college. We'd had neither the time nor the freedom earlier] to forge that bond. We've become only closer over the years.

He has recently returned to an older connection with the Midwest Men's Festival, which is held at a parcel of land in Kansas named Gaea. He's connecting to the spirit of a property owned & maintained for the use of alternative communities & wanted to share this special place. We grabbed pizzas & drove for an exploratory hike & picnic followed by a swim in the pond... enjoying a bit of heaven in the state where I was raised but long mostly rejected...

My brother is deeply complex, rudely sensitive, ponderously lively. I respect his complicated path. As gay siblings we juggle a lot of mirrors...

A gate in the woods brings easy ritual to us as we pass to explore various sites for various communities Pan's point around to Venus' Mound. 

I can only celebrate again the curiously elucidating difficulties & joyous discoveries I've had along my own journey...

  Michael is an imp whom I've come to easily love...

He has his own complexities... to have lived with my brother for their decades...

 One human-made feature on the land was a rustic corral of sorts...

Yet... the spidery tree I would not have imagined in the land of the ruby slippers my Dorothy refuses to click the heels of... rewarded me with an organic symbol of the web in which we live...

 

I've been enjoying unraveling tangles & re-weaving webs as stories around our travels to the bell convention in Kansas City...

KANSAS CITY CULTURE...

In the last post I wrote only an introduction to our time in Kansas City around the bell Convention. I want to share more...

I mentioned "my" lion at the Nelson-Atkins Museum which has continued to grow with vitality.

My cousin Kathy had mentioned sculptures on the south terrace when we were making plans by phone, but we were surprised, walking from a fortuitous street parking space, to confront these botanical wonders... replications made in resin by Philip Haas from 16th century paintings by Giuseppe Arcimboldo ... a wonderfully playful garden at the top of the museum's sculpture park where a badminton game has been lobbing sculptural shuttlecocks over the museum for some years.

I've long loved the older Beaux Arts building so was cautiously curious when I heard about the plans for a contemporary expansion...

But, I like the Steven Hull design & feel it brings new life to the tradition I love. I was happy to realize that my lion is standing guard, looking down from the top of the stairway into the underground entrance of the new addition...

  Afine transition from inside the classical space to resurface into the light-filled new.

While the web photo above illustrates how the luminous volume rests easily next to the original, I made the photos below showing how freely spacious is the result...

We've have visited many museums, many with new additions to their history & this is one we both celebrate heartily. One feels there is room to grow. The collection is fresh. 'Seems a good marriage.

I caught him several times as we explored. We both were caught by a rather garish introduction to an Indian painter...

It too is transitory in that his richly Indian sensibility depicts a surreal scene of fantastic collapse from the Mahabharata in thick gold paint enhanced with rhinestones & glitter! It keeps growing on me!

Another Indian piece uses common steel objects to assemble one of our favorite forms.

We had hoped to revisit the museum on the day we had lunch with the Mitchell cousins, but again it was closed. We were to meet my cousins [our mothers being sisters...] Kathy & Mike, with his wife Mary Jane at the Kemper Museum for lunch. The disappointment was that Kathy was ill, so for the second time we missed seeing her. We used the time we had planned for the Nelson to explore a show in this handsomly intimate museum we've enjoyed on previous visits. It took awhile & some elucidating comments from the two women there we discovered were docents preparing notes about the work of Adam Cvijanovic. They are big. They are mounted flat on the wall. They are painted on Tyvec, the vapor barrier one sees in construction sites. In pieces... collages... remounted... with wheat paste... to be site specific... sometimes in different compositions!

 The view of an abandoned drive-in theater was nicely placed for consideration of times past He has a thing for the movies, as you will see...

 He plays with notions like the diorama of history in his studio...

 He made this image with my initials flying off an "anti-gravitational" movie marquee above the docents...

 See the G... R & B ?!?

Both museums have no admission fee... impressively noting Kansas City's cultural richness.We look forward to being able to visit the new symphony building on future visits, but I wanted to see the new library, if for no other reason than the huge book spines on the parking garage...

 With details continuing the book theme...

 Inside it is repeated at the steps up into the children's library... with our guide BroJon...

 A roof garden is a place movies are shown... like a new version of that painted drive-in... or one can play a game of chess overlooking the revitalized down-town.

I'll write about a more somber landmark in the next post...

ABA CONVENTION - KANSAS CITY - 2015

The 70th annual American Bell Association Convention was held in a city I've known & appreciated since first visiting after graduating from 8th grade. Over the years I've visited two aunts; an early art teacher; a college roommate; my only sister; & my closest brother... plus several favorite cousins.

We have lots of good reasons to visit KC... even before the barbecue!

The city's Nelson-Atkins art museum is a great & unusually lively institution,  It was there, in 1959, on my first visit I met the ancient Greek lion sculpted of marble which became the model for my logo. I drew him as a wheeled pull-toy, inspiring in turn my doppelganger, Leo Toye. He was long in the repair shop & on our last visit the museum was closed... although the translucent walls of the Steven Holl building glowed enticingly...

I certainly was anticipating remaking acquaintance with this important entity who has become a personal symbol. He's still wonderful!

We are most likely to attend the ABA convention when it is held in a city we want to visit, Because it is such an expensive show we often don't find it worth the time/expense. The group has been getting smaller in the decades since I began attending in 1983... coincidentally staying with brother Jon & his partner Michael that trip as well. They loaned me a car to drive to Springfield, Missouri, where that meeting was held. In those days 350-400 registered. When I came to know only 128 were attending this year, I became concerned... in spite we'd been 4 years absent ourselves... which does historically help build interest.

The first day is a gathering time before the next day's first official session. The display room is open that day for the longest block of time. We begin setting-up our display after breakfast & the room is opened from after lunch until dinner time. I usually write half my business in those 5-6 afternoon hours. At closing time we were still wrapping-up an single client's order for 10 bells... a  sale handsomely allaying earlier fears. Appreciative business continued to make a very successful show for the bells.

THE BELL DISPLAY 

 

The hotel was rather perfect: with a pleasant staff; a roomy suite overlooking an open interior court from 8 floors up; breakfast with custom omelets; a generous happy hour... both gratis; & meals from quite a good kitchen... we were pleased.

Of course I have developed friendships with many of the ABA members over the years. Stephen has his own relationships since he often has accompanied me during our 20 years. We were the first out gay couple during times which did not easily guarantee the acceptance we feel now.

During handshakes & hugs hello I found myself repeatedly queried... with puzzled or concerned glances... about my health. We discovered a rumor that I was perhaps dying of AIDS! I can only presume some story concerning my period learning about inflammation got overblown during the years we were absent from attending conventions. That all got fixed years ago by my changing to a gluten-free diet with copious amounts of kale!  It was amusing to ravel by explaining the young man with whom I work in our garden & woods is often impressed how well I can keep up with him. 

"Oh, the humanity!"

At least they were talking about me!

Our luggage, waiting on the Island's dock with me for Stephen's hike up to the parking lot to bring down the car. This is our total baggage for the bell show; his biz; &amp our wardrobes. It includes a very well-traveled taped paper construction I made sometime in the 90's to transport the bell display boards... it still functions beautifully even as it has accumulated significant additional value over the years in terms of shipping costs. 'Slap another $50 bill onto its hide for this trip...

'Twas a good trip indeed... beginning with rare views of the backside of our mountain on the first flight's takeoff...