Saturday, May 29, 2010

Kansas City with Mary Buek


On May 18, I had the joy and privilege of touring the best parts of Kansas City with online art friend, Mary Buek. I have admired her photographs of the interesting places she goes on her photo walks, and when I learned I was going to be in Kansas City, I asked her if she would mind letting me tag along. She was very gracious and even picked me up at my hotel. At first, she gave me a driving tour of the Plaza area where we were staying. We drove by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and saw some very interesting statues of heads coming out of the ground. No photos, but I don't think I will soon forget them.



The first stop we made was in River Market. We stumbled on a great old brick storage building that was being torn down, brick by brick. The photo ops were fantastic. We scrambled over bricks and skirted mud puddles to take photos of rusty equipment, chain link fence in a pile, empty doorways, and much more. There was even a wrecking ball just waiting to have its photo taken

Our next stop was West Bottoms. Where we stopped was filled with old brick buildings. Some looked occupied, most not. There was wonderful graffiti everywhere. We didn't wander too far, but the small area where we wandered was filled with incredible eye-candy of my liking. I discovered a large drain pipe on the side of a building that had broken in a few places. It created a very cool waterfall. There were several puddles of water where the buildings and the graffiti reflected hopefully. Here is another photo from that area.



After leaving West Bottoms, I was hungry, so Mary took me to a great Mexican restaurant where I had avocado enchiladas. They were really great. I am going to make them at home, if I can. After lunch, we walked across some train tracks under a freeway to an old brewery. I fell in love with what I saw there. If it hadn't been getting late, I would have wanted to stay there longer, in spite of the drizzle. Here are a couple of photos from there.






Our last stop was a grain elevator. So cool. I had a fantastic day with Mary exploring the parts of Kansas City I wanted to see. One day, I hope she will come here and I can show her where I found the rusty car in the woods. I leave you with one final photo from the grain elevator. I have many more to process, but these are some of my favorites.


9 comments:

Leslie Avon Miller said...

Yummy images Miki! It sounds like a fabulous time.

Mary Buek said...

Great pictures, Miki. I had such a wonderful time with you; I felt like I knew you before I even met you. Hope things are going well for you and your art is flourishing. Come see me again someday.

M said...

Beautiful shots, Miki. Interesting how much there is to see when you really look.

Elena said...

Oh Miki what amazing photos! Love the rust patterns! Glad you had a great time.

Doris said...

Those are fabulous!

Willa said...

So good to hear what you are doing and seeing!

Uta said...

Great pics! Sounds and looks like you had a wonderful time.

april said...

Wow! Beautiful photographs, Miki! Look at all that patina! Your collages below look wonderful too! Have to look again.

Marjorie said...

Miki these photos are really wonderful as are your collages!