Article on BKD Project

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We were featured last week in the Springfield News-Leader for our work as art advisors on BKD’s new headquarters.  This project, which we started a year ago, will be finished in fall. 

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Dark Composition, Jacob Burmood

The work of several of the artists I selected was also featured.  I understand a few sales came about as a result.  Well cool.  You don’t compromise on the art, you just help the public grasp as to why it matters to acquire it.

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 Tree of Life, Jane Troup

Wounded Knee

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On our trip out of the Black Hills, we drove south to Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation.  Why?  I wanted my sons to understand the Tragedy of the massacre, as well as the depressing aspects of reservations overall: few jobs, little opportunity, much alcoholism.  We ate dinner in the town of Pine Ridge in a simple restaurant, while Sioux ceremonial music played in the background.  Afterward we walked the town, talked to some of the locals, and drove to the massacre site. 

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My sons had known nothing of it, so visiting the place was a somber experience for them.  Oddly it’s not well maintained, and only the elders know much about it.  Area teenagers, as with teenagers everywhere, have been seduced by pop culture and aren’t very familiar with this history.  Perhaps they will be as they get older.  I told the boys also of the AIM Uprising in 1973, with the rebellion and the shootings, and how that ushered in an era of wicked violence that surpassed even the murder rate of Detroit at the time.  Hard to fathom, but then many things are.

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My sons were quiet as we headed south.  We’d planned to camp on the high plains but severe storms changed that, so we drove through the Sand Hills listening to Modest Mouse of all things until we found a motel in Ogallala.  An interesting and haunting way to end a beautiful trip.

Matt Kirby’s Bike Rack for The Roasterie

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Danny O’Neil, founder of The Roasterie, asked me if we could create a sculptural bicycle rack for the cafe.  One that referenced the coffee biz.  I said Sure, talked it over with good old Matt Kirby, and this is what resulted.  Crazy, eh?

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The design has gone through a few modifications for purposes of function and size, but basically the thing will be composed of five coffee cups.  Matt’s working on it now.  Should be installed by month’s end.  What a hoot.

Frisbee Golf Pros Hold World Championship in KC

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The Professional Disc Golf Association recently held their world championship in KC.  That’s a long title for a bunch of people throwing a pie tin around.  Just kidding.  These golfers are exceptional.  I should know as one of their top players is a dude I grew up with, Steve Bowra.  Above is a shot of Bowie shooting the course at Rosedale Park.  He came in 13th out of 1000.  Now that called for a beer.  In fact several of them.

I’ll never forget when he first taught me to play the freaking game, on some course in Bowling Green, KY in 1990.  Damn he was good even then, and told me someday it would be a national sport.  I said Yeah, right.  With abundant luck I somehow beat him that day.  Hasn’t happened since though.

Blown Glass at the Overland Park Convention Center

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We installed this piece, by Vernon Brejcha, at the OPCC in ’02.  That was a good year.  The work gets dusty, and needs cleaning now and then.  This year that task fell to one of my sons.  Every piece of glass–and there are 350 of them–had to be cleaned by hand.  Poor dude.  I just sipped a latte and felt sorry for him.

Article in KC Mag

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We’re featured in the August issue of KC magazine.  Now I’d like to think this had to do with my achievements as an art advisor, but what they really wanted to know about was celebrities, meaning who had bought what.

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So they covered our artists Brent Collins, Arlie Regier and Jim Brothers, and acquisitions by Steven Spielberg, Douglas Adams, Warner Brothers, etc.  I wasn’t even mentioned.  Well that’s cool; my name’s on the joint.