A Hundred Fountains--TRIP 3 (2012)

The drought obviously affected trees at the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial, where many were dried out and dead.

Across the top of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in downtown Kansas City are the words, "Water, like time, has the power to cleanse and heal." The fountain, a series of flat pools, dropped down a hillside in lovely steps. Surrounding the park were exclusive apartment complexes and elegant hotels like Embassy Suites. But "cleanse and heal" seemed sad and possibly ironic when we noticed two homeless men sleeping on the grass and a third, sitting on a concrete bench by the list of war dead. All three had obviously spent the night in the first chill of autumn with no shelter and no identity.

Stepping carefully across the wet grass, we strolled the
grounds of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Using the GPS, Maryann, and my trusty sense
of direction, I guided Andy to the museums. We chose the art museums for today since they are closed on Mondays. "I want to do the sculpture gardens, as well," said Andy. "Weather predictions said cloudy and cool tomorrow. Let's stay outside as much as we can today, since it is so lovely." We donned light covering in the early morning cool and headed out to explore.

Competing with Rodin's The Thinker,
Andy ponders existence as a senior citizen.

Our first stop, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, opened at noon, so we strolled through the sculpture gardens outside. Shuttlecocks, created in 1994 by Swedish artist Claes Oldenburg and his Dutch wife Coosje van Bruggen, portrayed the museum as a huge badminton court with the building as the net and four strategically placed shuttlecocks outside.
"This can't be the only original," said Andy about Rodin's The Thinker, as he leaned against the famous work. It wasn't. The sign said #1008.
Ginkgo trees lined the grassy court. Some showed extreme dryness; others looked fine. Sadly, the drought will take its toll in years to come.
Interesting statues included Three Bowls, 1990, made of cedar and graphite by Ursulavon Rydingsvard; Ferment, 2011, that acknowledges the power of human imagination, a stainless steel tree crafted by Roxy Paine; Large Torso, an arch by Englishman Henry Moore; and Sheep Piece, 1971-1972, another bronze by Henry Moore. He crafted this four-ton sculpture at his farm/studio in England and named it because his ewe preferred grass near the statue and her lambs played around the base.

Summer is in full swing in the memorial gardens with the sun
bright, the fountains flowing and the flowers in full bloom.

Several blocks from the museum, two girls photographed flowers in the Ewing and Muriel Kauffman Memorial Gardens. We joined them.

Flowers abound in the memorial garden.

Honeybees pollinate Shasta daisies

"Isn't this one interesting?" I said, taking a picture of a yellow and white blossom. Honeybees swarmed over the daisies, collecting nectar in a frenzy of activity. We read about the tiny beads on the purple beauty berry bush and took more pictures.
"Did you notice the mausoleum in the corner?" asked Andy. "Ewing and Muriel Kauffman are buried there. He died in 1993 and she, in 1995. Apparently they put their life savings into this garden and then donated it to the city. It must be very well endowed to maintain such a large area with so many plants."
I asked the gardener about the stalks of blossoms with tiny red, yellow and orange flowers that grew in between all the planted areas. We had looked everywhere for a name but couldn't find one.  "We would like to plant that; it seems to grow in shade and sun," I explained. "Do you think it would survive in Connecticut?"

The Frank A. Theis Park glistened near the museum
complex in Kansas City.

"It is butterfly weed, a monarch attractor," he answered. "I don't know about location, but it's hardy." He guessed about the Latin name... aescelupis ceaurea, but told me to Google it.
"They pride themselves on their fountains," said Andy as we walked, "and there are more than 100 in the city." The fountain in Frank A. Theis Park is particularly lovely in the morning sun, and one pool reflected the jet streaks overhead.
I photographed the bell tower at Country Club Plaza and the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain.
"That's a shopping center," said Andy when I snapped the picture.

Water, frozen in time, slayed from the J.C. Nichols
Memorial Fountain downtown in the shopping district.

"I don't care," I told him. "I like the tower."
We browsed through an outdoor arts and crafts fair with vendors looking on and then headed to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art."It opens at 11 a.m. on Sunday," said Andy, "and maybe we can find coffee there."
No such luck, but we enjoyed looking at Georgia O'Keeffe's 1936 Yellow Jonquils #3 and Andy Warhol's 1952 untitled early costume design.
"My favorite artist in this whole museum is Heidi Whitman," said Andy. "She is from Jamaica Plains, Massachusetts." He had me photograph Without a Compass, 2011, and From There to Here, 2011, both made of ink, gouache, acrylic, paper and cast shadows, and both delicately attached to the wall with numerous mounting pins. "I like them because they are so delicate and fragile and yet so unusual," Andy explained.
The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art opened at noon. We waited impatiently for a minute or two for the doors to open. I really wanted a cup of coffee. The carvings overhead next to the door read, "It is by the real that we exist; it is by the ideal that we live."
The cafeteria/restaurant was set in a Moorish-style room with a 50-foot ceiling, skylights, and strings of tiny electric light bulbs strung across. Coffee and cookies provided a perfect lunch break. then we explored the museum full tilt.
In one display a Greek lion from Attica, dated 325 B.C., ready to pounce, guarded a cemetery entrance. "Can you believe that an artist could do so much in 325 B.C.?" asked Andy.
"Did you read that the artist had never seen a real lion?" I asked him. "The statue combines a cow's hips, a goat's backbone, a horse's neck, and a human's eyes and is carved in the pose of a dog."
I photographed Portrait of Paul Haviland, 1884, an oil of a four-year old, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. "You have to take that one," said Andy, pointing across the room. "It's called On the Road." The picture by Thomas Proudley, 1860, showed an eastern Pennsylvania scene juxtaposing new and old methods of travel; smooth, straight rails and bumpy, circuitous wagon trails; fast and slow travel; clear skies and smokey clouds of soot. It was an interesting complement and contrast to the blog.

Liberty Memorial honors the dead
from World War I.

Andy particularly liked the art of Thomas Hart Benton, who lived from 1889 to 1975. I photographed Benton's The Sun Treader, 1934. But his absolute favorite was Benton's 1952 oil painting, Open Country.  Georgia O'Keeffe's Apple Blossom, 1950, was displayed in the same room.
Outside, we walked around more sculpture at the back of the museum. Rumi, 1991, made of steel and paint by Mark di Suvero, celebrates industrial construction with steel I-beams and the orange color of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.
Before we left I took pictures of Thomas Colder's The Cubicle, 1969; and Henry Moore's Relief #1, 1959, set off by red begonias and juniper bushes.
At the Liberty Memorial and the National World War I Museum, we picked up blowing newspapers.
"I don't understand how people can so disrespect those who have given their lives," said Andy.  It was easy enough to clean up the blowing papers as we walked.  The sun beating down was actually hot on this beautiful fall afternoon. So busy walking, we forgot to count the steps going and coming, but there were certainly more than a hundred as we crisscrossed the property toward Union Station and the Henry Wollman Block Memorial Fountain in front of the railroad station and museum.

Sitting in the plaza above the National
World War I Museum, it was hard not to
squint in the brilliant sunlight.

At Main Street and 13th, we found the Barney Allis Plaza Fountain. Here bikes stood neatly in a rack. "They are for rent," I pointed out. "I wonder if they get much business."  Just then a man zipped past on a similar silver bike. "I guess that answers my question," I joked. The rentals were $7 for 24 hours and $2 for each additional half hour; $65 a month with a range of prices in between.
"That's not bad," said Andy. "Drew said the rental was ridiculous in New York City."

The Muse of Missouri Fountain
decorates the heart of the city.

"I can't believe how hilly it is! This is the Great Plains, and this city is built on steep hills," said Andy.
Downtown at Main Street and 8th Avenue, we found the fountain in honor of the Muse of Missouri. It was surrounded by waving wheat grasses. Like most of the other fountains, it was well maintained and flowing in the face of drought. "The fountains must recycle water," said Andy. "They all seem limited in the amount of water circulation."
As we walked back to the car, he again commented about the hills. "I just can't believe the terrain," he said. It's blind spot hills, and this is the Great Plains. Even next to the rivers, the steepness of the hills surprises me."

The Lewis and Clark Statue on the banks of
the Missouri River honors the explorers
who first supplied their boats here.

The Lewis and Clark Monument marks a spot high above the Missouri River that served as a lookout for the famous explorers. From here they supplied their boats and set out to follow the upper Missouri to its source.
Finally, we drove to the Passeo, two streets separated by several blocks of parkland. Here, Going to Kansas City Plaza and the Black Vietnam Veterans Memorial were less well kept but still lovely. In the late afternoon sun, the marble reflected the light. What a lovely city! And we couldn't have asked for nicer weather to explore it.