Kansas City as Subject Matter...

I recently had the opportunity to judge a juried art exhibition for the first time. My dear friend and mentor, Holly, and I took a day trip to St. Joseph, MO to judge the show at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art. It was a lovely day filled with driving, talking, viewing art and blackberry cobbler with ice cream :)

On this trip I picked up a book that is a retrospective of Wilbur Niewald, a familiar painter to Kansas City, but somehow I have managed to live here for 9 years and never hear of him. This is surprising considering that I graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute, as did he, and he was also a professor in the painting department for 43 years! Niewald is known for his cityscapes and landscapes, which depict hills and urban vistas familiar to many Kansas City area residents. Since the 1970s, he has created landscapes, portraits and still-life paintings directly from observation. I was specifically drawn to the painting shown below ( Kansas City, View of the River 2007 by Wilbur Niewald ) because if you look closely, in the far distance there are some grain silos.






I see those exact grain silos up close almost everyday right outside the windows of Songbird Cafe! I work at the cafe but it is also my favorite hangout, primarily because it is owned by my best friend, Courtney but it does serve the best coffee in town.

To view these beautiful silos up close yourself and enjoy some coffee at the cafe...Join us this Friday, the 13th, from 7-9 for the showing of photographs by Hannah Huffman. Songbird Cafe is located at 1315 Fairfax Trfwy, KCK 66115. We are also open weekdays from 7ish to about 3 :)

Hope to see you Friday! Until next time...

peace and love.

jori