A MIDWESTERN ADVENTURE
KANSAS CITY AND BEYOND
ART FOR WHAT'S SAKE?
October 7, 2005 - I arrived in Kansas City still cooling my heels
from a big, successful solo show that I worked on for four straight
months. Fairly burnt out and tired of the relatively small size of
the Austin art scene, I was ready to see if the grass is really greener
on the other side.
I timed my trip northward with KC's First Friday, their opening night
carnival of art openings at their
Crossroads District. I
swapped notes with my friends about the differences and similarities
between the Austin and Kansas City art scenes. It seems the same
problems that plague Austin plague KC. Too few buyers, art being
seen as a disposable entertainment, and a cast of regulars who
shamelessly mooch off artists and show up at openings strictly to drink
free beer. |
Kansas' newest resident: 'After a Fashion' |
Outside of the Nelson Atkins Museum |
The opening night was a whirlwind of
galleries, we shuffled from street to street working our way past
crowds of folks on every inch of sidewalk: the carnival was in full
affect. My anxieties about being an artist in America
that I tried leaving behind in Austin were reinforced. Large
crowds making a quick, disposable social event of art openings occur
all across this wide land - Austin, Kansas City, San Francisco.
I don't think New York is the solution either, as every worry and
problem that exists on a smaller stage is magnified a thousand fold
there.
And so after wandering through some old haunts, recognizing a few
familiar faces, nothing hurt more than seeing an old man I remember
seeing from openings I'd go to ten years ago when I was in school.
He was one of the regulars, a 'patron' of the arts who makes sure he
drinks his fill at every opening.
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But the trip was good, and the realization of the futility of being an
artist in America is an old feeling by now. On a much more
positive note, I was randomly contacted by a nice man in KCK about some
paintings the week before the trip. After exchanging a series of
emails, I ended up un-stretching 'After a Fashion' and hauling it up to
Kansas City. After meeting him and his wife, they bought the
painting, and it found a nice new home in the central Plains.
And so it goes, chugging along one sale at a time.
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