Up to date Spoutings about Ballet and Architecture in KC MO

I visited Kansas City, Missouri this month and was struck once again by the influence, salutation and importance of water in this mid-size American city. A city which is in the middle of vast prairies but actually settles into arching bluffs and glacier made hills. The confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers was what brought that region to the attention of early French trappers as early as 1714. The city, now known as Kansas City, began to arrange itself on those bluffs and ridges in 1838.

JC Nichols Memorial Fountain

Today Brush Creek is tamed and made people-useful in the beautiful Plaza area. The creek looks like a cement lined canal and when I was there, Bonfires were artfully arranged in the center of the canal in the shape of a long serpent. Bridges over the creek were closed to traffic and live music was performed while restaurants spilled out onto the streets closest to the Creek offering outdoor dining. Brush Creek is a tributary of the Blue River and becomes a part of the Missouri and then part of the watershed which is the Mississippi River.

Johanna http://nativemoments.blogspot.com 

KC plays homage to the water flowing through it by being a "city of fountains". It is second only to Rome, Italy, in the number of fountains erected. There are over 300 fountains. They can be found in parks, outside of buildings, shopping areas and marking the entry of neighborhoods.http://www.kcfountains.com/

Designed by Moshe Safdie

I was in KC MO to visit my daughter Johanna. I was also there to see the completed Kauffman Center for the Arts and to attend a brand new ballet. My daughter works as a costumer for the Kansas City Ballet. The ballet which was performed was the premier of the first ballet ever based on American literature. It was "Tom Sawyer", this piece of literature is based on events which happen in the small 19th c. town of Hannibal, Missouri. A town, novel and now ballet heavily influenced by the rolling Mississippi. So it was appropriate that Kansas City Missouri a city influenced also by the flow of water was able to premier this amazing event.

But first, the new building in which the ballet was performed also seemed to have a watery connection to my eyes. Because I think it looks like 2 giant conch shells left there in some primordial time to be repurposed into an Opera/Ballet Theatre and a Symphony Orchestral Theatre each nestled beside each other. See photos of these which my daughter took on her blog. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/us/kauffman-center-for-the-performing-arts-set-to-open-in-kansas-city.html , This is what I saw as I came to the Ballet performance.

To be in this brand new building was pretty exciting in this time of debt crisis. I love that private donors were the main donors for these buildings. 135 million came from the Muriel Kauffman fund. The city gave a parking garage. Now I think if you build it they will come. The horse shoe arrangement of Opera/ballet Theatre provides the sort of sight line an auditorium built for theatrical or symphonic performances cannot provide. We set high up in the balcony but easily felt an intimate of the performance. The sets were beautiful and minimal.  The simple cross beams which were raised and lowered to indicate the individual homes of Hannibal, the lanterns which were suspended in the Firefly scene and the spooky graveyard tombstones all created believable settings without taking away from the choreography, dancers and story.

Lobby at intermission

The music performed by the Kansas City Symphony and Choral group from the Liberty High School Concert Choir and composed by Maury Yeston was wonderful.  The costumes gave a sense of time and place and magic. They were primarily designed by Holly Hynes and put together by the wonderful costume department which includes my daughter. The company has been working on this premiere since January. Now that is while they have kept there regular performance schedule and moved to a new building.
Kudos to  Kansas City. Do read this review from the New York Times its a good read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/arts/dance/tom-sawyer-by-kansas-city-ballet-review.html?_r=1&ref=dance

Two Views!

Just had to show you a photo of my back yard where I worked on a pastel of this view of my neighbors glorious red leaved tree.

               "Autumn, the year's 
last loveliest smile."                                                                                       
                      William Cullen Bryant


Below you can see what we have today here on the Front Range. It is down to the studio to paint in between knocking the snow off branches. Warm weather will be back again by the weekend.




Check out my new website, it is in process and is being 






created by my niece. What do you think? I am excited.
http://cbuschmannart.com/

Raisin D'Etre

I  have been asked " What draws your interest when you decide to make a painting? ". I do know I am very interested in repeated patterns, light and color. I know  also that I love the challenge of creating the mood or temperament I felt when I saw something just out of the corner of my eye. I believe we see so many - honestly I don't have the words for it and that is why I paint it. I am a visualist.
For instance my husband and I were visiting friends near Crow, Oregon outside of Eugene. It is in the country and the air is full of moisture to my Coloradan nature. So we walk in the morning up this road, which we have often walked before. Each time I walk it, when I get to this bend in the road I begin to think about how and where, from which position could I paint it. This summer morning the sky is pink and the buildings are sinking into the moist grass. But most important is the sharp pungent odor of an herb. What is it- I wonder?And then my cooking sense turns on and I recognize it as the herb chamomile. Later when I am walking around my friend's pond I notice a field of wild chamomile growing. From those experiences which I carried back home to my studio, my memory, some photos and my desire to share came this painting.

"Chamomile Path"

If you can smell the chamomile and feel the moisture of that July dawn this painting is for sale at the AUM Gallery this weekend and until November 26th. The opening is 5:00 to 8:30 PM Friday, and I  look forward to seeing you there.

The True Size of Things

"The Goldenrod near the Garden Chair" 14 1/2" x 8"

This clear soft air of autumn has given me time to ruminate about this and that. One of those, thises or that's is how technology has made the relative size of stuff equal and has that affected our judgement or not. I thought of this when I reproduced this rather small plein aire painting I did of my friend's August garden. On the computer screen it suddenly had a larger presence. Then last week while I was visiting Fredricksburg, Texas I got to see Scott L. Christensens painting "Winter Light". It is 70" x 70" but when you look at it on the site of Insight Galleryhttp://www.insightgallery.com/searchresults.php?exhibitionId=18&start=10  it appears to be one painting among many. You cannot begin to be as amazed as I was at the sheer weight of the accomplishment of painting such a lush and fresh painting so large. The joy of that painting was certainly in the real seeing as opposed to the virtual seeing. You can see it again on Scott Christensen's web site http://www.christensenstudio.com/3/artist.asp?ArtistID=15825&Akey=TVKNT9F5 If you hit on Galleries it opens with "Winter Light" alone on the page. It is a treat to see.
I don't know quite where I am with this ruminating but perhaps a small orchestral crescendo should be played with paintings like "Winter Light". Or perhaps going to galleries and museums have real solid value and understanding toward accomplishment. I encourage you to get out and see real art whether small or large!

Preview!!

The end of October ( October 21 - November 26) AUM Gallery will have another Invitational. This year the theme is flowers. Here is one bouquet I am inserting.

"Circular Poetry"

I will have 2 other floral offerings  in the show. So this is my tease. 

Ahh September Respite

September came in as if it really understood the artificial dates we humans had posted on 30 new days of a proscribed period of time. Whooee the heat spell was broken here in Colorado. All of a sudden the tip tops of trees sported 10 yellow leaves portending a golden future and the temperature actually allowed one to comfortably wear jeans.( I know the teenagers are still wearing shorts but  they will be doing so in December.) Thank goodness those of us of a certain lovely age  finally get it. (one hopes) Or they've given up hope.

"The Smoke bush on Delgado Street"

So I have some catch  up to do. I saw a great pastel show at the Abend gallery and got to meet some fine pastel artists. I will share this with you , I promise.
I have been painting flowers for an invitational at AUM Gallery and I will give you dates and information later. All the flower painting got me into a rash, throe, consumed in floral painting so here I share a couple with you.

"Next to the Reading Lamp"

At the moment these are the also rans, I have three others I  have selected for the AUM Gallery show. What is really terrific news- Check out one of my all time favorite pastel blogs www.landscapesbychristopher.blogspot.com and pick up the September Pastel Magazine you will see a cool article written about Tom Christopher an Iowa pastelist. And to all of my Iowa pastelist friends with whom I visited Beaune with this summer you have a treasure!

"Well Worth Waiting for-"

 I had 2 weekends of great pastel time this past month. The first was of course being a participant in the Mile High Invitational  for pastels here in Denver. The judge as I mentioned before was Richard McKinley. If you are a pastelists and ever have the chance to take a workshop from Richard I highly recommend you do. I was unable to get in as there was quite a long waiting list. I did however go at 4:30 PM on the evening of the show opening to hear Richard  talk about the pastels he had selected for the show. I truly enjoyed his comments and the manner of respect he showed for the variety of ways the artists expressed themselves with pastels. I asked him when he was through talking to the group to talk to me about my two pastels which he had selected. His comments were thoughtful and affirming.

"The Banana Seller"

The above pastel was the second one of my pastels in the Mile High Invitational. If you live in Denver I recommend this show, it is at the Curtis Arts and Humanities Gallery and is open Mondays through Fridays.
The quality of the work is high and the styles are diverse. If you would like to learn more about Richard McKinley please look at the article "Pastel Pointers" which is located in my blog  list on the sidebar. If you would like to see his work it can be found at www.richardmckinley.com
The exhibit was sponsored by the Colorado Pastel Society and they did a very professional job. If you would like to know more about the Colorado Pastel Society you can find out more at its website; www.pastelsocietyofcolorado.org
Now for the second week of  pastel adventures in my next post.