Kansas City - Missouri

Well I spent a lovely 3 nights 4 days in Kansas City, MO for a visual arts conference. I had a really great time and met alot of really interesting people from all over the world. Sharing ideas about the visual arts all weekend long.

I ate at alot of really cool BBQ restaurants and ate TONS of cookies. ( I put on 3 pounds eating foods and desserts I would never eat here in NY because well I am always watching the scale.. I was not watching it this past weekend...hey I was sort of on a break lol .. anyway it will come off)
Days when I had free time, was wandering around Kansas City. I am a wanderer and when I wander I bring my camera and probably look crazy most of the time to viewers. Well because I love taking photos of the little details. The snow footsteps, my cookies, architecture and rosettes, my amazing hotel room with the great view of the city and the WW I memorial. I also headed out to the Nelson Museum saw a great exhibit on the history of photography which I will talk about later in this entry and lots of abs. expressionist art.

Kansas City is not like a city you could compare to NYC, I read about how it has just been revitalized in the last ten years, they are making more accomodations for tourists to go and visit the area. At times I felt it was very empty, well also its the middle of the winter! Anyway this is what my days looked like:

View from the hotel

The WW 1 Memorial that was always there to look out outside my hotel room

I was painting the sky line here from my hotel room with watercolors and ink for a conference assignment on Kansas City -

My visit to the Nelson Art Museum in Kansas City
A lovely expressionistic Franz Kline



Of course I had to hang out in the photography wing for like an hour.. They had some really nice early, early Daguerretypes, Salt Prints, Albumen Prints (Reddish colored prints) from the 19th Century. I want to go in this direction this year with some experimentation with the "Albumen look."

This is a pristine example of a early sharp Daguerretype. Dagurretypes are always sharp, unless the sitter would move for the 3-5 min exposures. lol
This little girl you can tell her hands moved but look at the rest of her, sharp sharp!!!

Albumen Print (Reddish Hues)

After I was with everyone in my conference group we all agreed we didn't want to spend $85 + on a Steak house, we settled for this amazingly mouthwatering Mexican restaurant that has the best guacomole I have ever tasted. ( OH yeah it was pouring rain when we left)

I then wandered a found a photobooth in this restaurant called a " Street Car Named Desire"
(post photo booth photos later) Yes, there are still black and white photobooths left in America!

My hotel at the Westin was across the street from Union Station, which was built in 1914. The architecture was amazing in there, look for yourself:


The emptyness I was feeling about this place can be summarized here:


People riding segways in here for $5 a piece ( I didn't get that one)

COOKIES:

There is one Amtrak station in there, the rest of the area holds some really nice restaurants and stores. More empty restaurants, this one is reminiscent of Edward Hopper


It snowed one day there (something we are not used to anymore in NY)

My last night there I saw a freight train, it was interesting a full of colors something I had never seen before I snapped this photo: