I met Lisa Kronenburg several years ago, when she submitted work for one of my projects. She no longer lived in the Midwest then, but had moved to Liverpool. I think the influence of the English countryside–and the English weather–is fairly evident in this piece, but the understated style is her own. Oil on canvas.

All right, so I’m a Kansan. Never mind that my gallery’s on the Missouri side in Kansas City, or that I’ve spent much of my life in Missouri, I’m still a Kansas boy. So what’s up with the Kansas Board of Education, their questioning of Darwin’s theories, and this whole gig with Intelligent Design? I don’t know enough to discuss it yet, but the initial indicators are pretty disturbing.

When I went to KU, in the 70s and 80s, some people agreed with Darwin, some with the Bible, and others simply believed in a Greater Power–just like you’ll encounter in Berkley, New Haven, or Austin. The point they all made was that these options should be made open to kids so they could decide for themselves as they grew older; no one felt it was the job of the schools to influence things one way or the other. The vast majority believed that Evolution was a scientific fact, and yet did not necessarily feel it negated the existence of a higher power–however one might define that. This was a healthy intellectual discourse, and I knew it had balance. I ain’t so sure no more, as I never trust extremist views in any direction. Can all this be summed up then in Thomas Frank’s book What’s The Matter With Kansas? No, but that’s a pretty good start.