Category Archives: Favorite People
The shipping department
Shipping department.
Shipping department.
Ever wonder who takes care of the “shipping department” while we are away?
We have had many house sitters over our years of travel. In fact, our house sitting roster includes some of the most talented performers in Kansas City. Many have been in transition or recently back to Kansas City after a time of performances away. At times, our sitters spend almost as much time living in our house as we do — they are our invisible roommates. They are an essential part of our team. You get to see us and my work in Florida, Texas, Oregon etc. because they allow us to travel without concern for the furry assistants (aka shipping department) that reside with us.
Cory Imig (photo from Ink magazine)
But none have approached it in the way our current sitter does, for Cory it is a life style and an art project.
Cory Imig has foregone traditional living and an abundance of material possessions to live as a minimalist. By sharing other people’s homes with them while they are away, she gets to experience different ways of interacting with a space and different parts of the city. Her job as an artist is to question the status quo and for now that is living arrangements. And while this life-style choice certainly wouldn’t suit all, it is the perfect fit for this well organized, responsible young artist that likes to shake things up.
And in addition to being the best house sitter ever, her project is getting local attention (good thing we book our year of travel in advance!).
Read what Ink Magazine has to say about Cory here.
Follow her ongoing adventures on her blog: At Home Without a Home.
Thanks Cory! We couldn’t do it without you!
Kinda like summer camp
Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival
Lynn and John’s back yard!
Kyle and I have arrived a few days early for this year’s Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival. We are looking forward to the show this weekend, with great hospitality, beautiful weather and the wonderful Park Avenue. But what always makes this trip special is that in addition to visiting with lovely patrons old and new, our days here with our friends feel a lot like summer camp (albeit with more margaritas); there is art, music and lake time, nap time, an off site bowling activity planned, and much, much laughter. As I sit on Lynn and John Whipple’s back porch and watch a boat pass on the lake I just can’t believe how lucky we are.
It also makes me realize that with the upcoming work ahead for the show this weekend, I better take advantage of this beautiful day and the fact that it is margarita time! I wish you could be here!
Here is our friend Lynn Whipple with a wish for you!
What are you doing to make today spectacular?!?
Best of 2011 #7 — My husband is the bomb!
My ridiculously talented husband!
A marriage of two artists is an incredible thing! Not that there aren’t some challenges, but there is also an understanding that is hard to find outside the creative world, an encouragement, and the occasional well-intentioned nudge. We often take more pleasure in the accomplishments of the other than of our own. So one of my bests of 2011 was definitely watching Kyle stretch for a huge performance of a very challenging piece, playing on a relatively new instrument.
The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
The artistic renaissance that is taking place in Kansas City included the 2011 opening of a new performing arts center, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Living approximately 2 miles away from this architectural masterpiece we watched the skyline of Kansas City change, and for 5 years we eagerly anticipated it’s opening. What we couldn’t anticipate was that within a month of its grand opening Kyle would play a solo accordion piece to a near capacity crowd in the acoustically magnificent Helzberg Hall. And along with that, we would spend a couple of days soaking in the grandeur of the building in both the front and back of house with our friends, some of Kansas City’s most talented musicians. (fun fact — They were building the hall longer than Kyle has been playing accordion!) His performance was a part of:
The Homecoming of Virgil Thomson
Under the fearless artistic direction of tenor Nathan Granner, 54 area musicians paid tribute to Kansas City’s most lauded composer, presenting an overview of Thomson’s life work. Homecoming: An Evening with Virgil T, was a 90-minute program dedicated to an array of Virgil Thomson’s instrumental and vocal works, all related in some significant way to the theme of Thomson as, in Aaron Copland’s words, the “father of American classical music.” The musical tribute was filmed with seven cameras with excerpts from the concert incorporated into a biography of Thomson to be broadcast nationally on PBS. (projected for spring 2013) Kyle was honored to play an accordion étude, Lamentations, commissioned in 1959 by the National Accordion Association. I couldn’t be prouder!
Kyle Dahlquist in Helzberg Hall
Did you stretch this year? If so how?
Bests of 2011 #5 — The Plaza Art Fair you don’t see.
I traveled to my first art festival in May of 2000 and on my return home I exclaimed to Kyle, “I have found my people!”
That is as true today as it was in 2000, and continues to be the one of the major highlights of doing shows. And so it is bittersweet in September when we get to the end of our season of travel and spend the last few days with our crazy talented friends that are scattered across the country. Fortunately for us this last hurrah of the season is the Plaza Art Fair in Kansas City, which gives us the opportunity to host our friends. We fill our house and studios (and now our new trailer) to overflowing with the most talented visual artists we know. Then on Sunday night we host a party for all the artists that can make it — the night is filled with many stories, and much laughter and music. It has definitely become one of the highlights of our year, and one we always look forward to. But there is more…
With the fun that everyone is having and the knowledge that it might be half a year before we see one another again, the party has been extending, so much so that now it continues through the week. As we say good-bye to those that have to hit the road, many of the closest stay and indulge in more laughing, junking, music-making, card playing, and world’s problem solving, all at the languid speed of a summer beach vacation. It’s reminiscent of when I was a teenager on the phone with my boyfriend, not wanting to say goodbye — “You hang up.” “No, you hang up.” “No, you hang up.” “You hang up.”
I have found my people and I love them!
Filling the cup in Chicago
After our normally hectic summer travel season, this time of year presents a very different rhythm. When we are not working with patrons that are looking for the perfect gift, Kyle and I both spend most of these shorter days woodshedding and looking for ways to refill the creative cup.
We had a particularly joyous and inspiration filled weekend in Chicago last weekend. But with a collector due at the studio any minute now, I will simply share the highlights with you:
- Our beautiful and talented friends Gregory Story and Clark Miller.
Gregory Story and Clark Miller
- The Chicago Cultural Center hosting the ceremony and the home of the largest Tiffany dome in the world.
Largest Tiffany dome in the world.
- Write Now: Artists and Letterforms - a major exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center that showcases a diverse range of recent works by more than 60 artists utilizing letters and text in a wide array of mediums.
Toll receipt installation
- Sonic Arboretum: A collection of horned speakers, made from compressed recycled newsprint and dryer lint, created by sculptor and instrument-maker Ian Schneller and composer/violinist Andrew Bird, are installed in the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago’s atrium to create a unique sound garden.
Sonic Arboretum
Isn’t it wonderful to come home from a trip with your cup full — full of love and friendship, full of inspiration, full of motivation to spend long days and long nights in the studio.
Now I am back to work! to read or make a comment
My studio soundtrack — Richard Shindell
The most seminal moment in my career as an artist was at a music concert. Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving
Here is an excerpt from a love letter I read every year at Thanksgiving. It was written on Thanksgiving Day, 1945 by my Grandfather Rev. W.W. Jones to my Grandmother, Adena Jones while he was away in the army. They were newlyweds and they were expecting their first child — my father. I am thankful!
Mile Marker 235, 16″ x 22″
Ben Buonaiuto — One of our Favorite People!
It is a good life, filled up and overflowing. “There’s opportunity everywhere,” he says. “And I do meditate, not as much as I used to, but I do it,” he says, “even when I get stuck in traffic. I meditate a lot like a cat would.”
photo by Marcus Coker
Those are the kinds of things Ben says that throw you off. He meditates like a cat. It’s an image that’s hard to forget. He describes himself as a pragmatic man, but still believes in the magic of everyday life. Not only does he believe, he has the good sense to cherish it every single day. (excerpt from The World According to Ben, story by Marla Cantrell)
Ben and Sage and both of their extended families are an inspiration. We are lucky to be part of their lives; to have traveled with them from the Florida Keys to Red Fish Lake, Idaho and many points in-between, to have shared many meals, and to know and watch Ari grow! Read the article and I’m sure you will be jealous and dying to see the lion!