Flying Free - 25 Year Exhibit | GrassrootsArtCenter

Lawrence Reynolds - Hays, Kansas - 1941-2013

Wood/metal sculptures

An imaginative artist with found or discarded materials, Lawrence Reynolds's work is usually an illustration of a text, either Biblical or from popular culture. Using discarded scraps of metal, he portrays a sprawling man tripped up by his own tongue with the title, "Man is judged by the transgressions of his lips." A chronic experimenter with many materials and media, Reynolds is most prolific in his production of unpainted carvings of human figures, made from recycled 2 x 4 lumber, and illustrating either common sayings or the tensions of human relationships.

Larry Richardson - Mulvane, Kansas

Golden Gate Bridge

Larry Richardson has had two great loves in his life, his wife Barbara and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA. In 1994, Larry was given some cable from a neighbor who had torn down a wooden bridge 1/4 mile from the Richardson's.
His wife said, "You've got your material so build your bridge." Larry's dad said, “Well, I'll help you." The Kansas Golden Gate Bridge is 150' long, 8' wide, and 25' high, and took 11 years to complete. It crosses a small creek separating the largest part of his farm to a small piece of land. These two men used a Golden Gate postcard — not blueprints — as a reference. Larry calls it "comparison engineering." Materials include lots of recycled items: old wooden bridge towers, cables from an oil rig, suspender cables salvaged from an old Cessna aircraft, and 9.5 tons of hand-mixed concrete.

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Ed Root - Lucas, Kansas - 1866-1960

Concrete Yard Environment

During his retirement years, Ed Root arrayed his farmstead south of Lucas with glass- and rock-studded concrete monuments and festoons of crepe paper flowers and shrines. In 1937, Root overturned his car, breaking his hip. After his recovery from the accident, Root spent nearly 20 years assembling his concrete sculpture garden as a pastime. Mosaic sculptures sparkled and glistened, scattered randomly unexpectedly displays around his rural mailbox and farmstead. Root's sculptures were fascinating not only for their visual appeal but also for the time period they evoke. Root took available commonplace materials and turned them into sculptures. Refuse of the mid-20th century such as doorknobs, china dishes, rocks, Model T rims, brown glass Clorox bottles, metal bunnies, marbles, mirrors, Milk of Magnesia bottles, and even plastic barrettes decorated his concrete pieces.

Anthony "Tony" Sanchez - Kansas City, Missouri

Painting

Decades of paintings by Anthony “Tony” Sanchez, 98 years old, of Kansas City, Missouri, was on display at the Grassroots Art Center in 2018. Tony’s paintings include scenes of trains, landscapes, cartoon characters, yard displays, home decor and holiday themes using acrylic and oil paints. As a young child, he was self-taught and began to sketch farm scenes with pencils, not crayons. He was recognized in school and later, his work places for his ability to draw and paint.
“During my working years, I began drawing cutaways, exploded view of parts.” Tony explained. When no catalogs were available for ordering parts, he would sketch what was needed. He was asked to sketch the design of a box for bus fares. “I could see it in my mind and went home, drew sketches and helped to design the boxes for buses.”
The colors in his paintings come through true because he paints in the daytime when it’s best to work with natural daylight.
Tony is a World War II veteran and retired after thirty-three years as a supervisor at TJ Fleming Co., Westinghouse Air Brake, K.C. Mo. He has dedicated his retirement to doing what he loves, painting.

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Ed Schmiedeler - DeSoto, Kansas - 1941-2015

Yard Environment

A wonderful yard environment full of color, texture, and pattern is tucked into the woods of eastern Kansas. Ed Schmiedeler has been working for years, ornamenting the exterior and interior of his rural home. Anything is apt to be displayed as multiples or as a single unit in his yard environment. Included are machinery parts, railroad rail, jars, rocks, bikes, mannequins, barbed wire, mosaic toilets, chairs, plastic, cloth, shoes, ceramics, wheels, and furnace grates. The landscape plantings of floral and grasses make the sculptures come alive. Ed says, his favorite part of the environment is no single sculpture. "I love to sit in the swing on my deck which makes a great vantage point to view and enjoy the entire yard."

Nick Schmiedeler - Lawrence, Kansas

Yard Art

Nick Schniedeler elevates junk to jubilant sculpture. His canvas is his home and his medium is rusted metal, spare parts and discarded detritus. A favorite family outing for Nick and his two children is an excursion to the junkyard to scrounge for new materials. The yard and home environment is a culmination of incorporating his finds at the junkyard in a very organized, orderly manner throughout the yard and home. The perimeter of his yard is an odd assortment of car tags from the fifty states, to a Chevrolet pick-up tail gate, his dad's fishing lures, bowling balls, old push mower, bed springs, garage door springs, and bushings just to name a few. Somehow Nick has a knack of bringing all these individually interesting parts together to make a terrific artistic statement both on the exterior and interior of his home.

Cardboard Houses

Martha Schrag - Pretty Prairie, Kansas - 1894 -1991

Martha Schrag created cardboard buildings for 10 years. She gave cardboard churches away at Christmas.

John Scott - Bunker Hill, Kansas

Metal Sculpture

Salvaging scrap metal pays the bills, but creating sculpture from that junk is what makes John Scott a happy man. Most of Scott's small sculptures are extremely detailed, whether it's a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, hand gun, or an oil pumper unit. With patience, imagination and an arc welder, he creates metal art from bits and pieces of scrap metal from the Russell County area. Scott started after a conversation at a bar about making something from the junk he had collected. Scott worked with the man for about a month, and then the man moved on. Scott was hooked on welding unrelated pieces of metal, and prefers to sort through his junk to find just the right look rather than to manufacture a piece.

Paul Seiwald - Vermillion, Kansas - 1930-

Paintings

Paul Seiwald appreciates order and symmetry in his life. During Seiwald's working years, he was a research chemist in Kansas City and when he retired, he and his wife moved to eastern Kansas to enjoy a quiet rural life. One of Seiwald's favorite pastimes is to go for walks in pastures and along roadsides. While he's walking, Seiwald gathers unusual finds with great care and selection. He then builds boxes that highlight his unique finds. Seiwald spends a lot of time hand sanding, staining, and placing a finish coat on the boxes. Next, he has to decide what looks good together. He says, "I like things that are not perfect. I quit when it looks right." Seiwald's paintings are not created on canvas, but rather plywood adapted with some coatings of wood putty to give it texture. He just likes to paint on that surface better.

Yard Environment

Letha Shepherd - Wichita, Kansas - 1921-2002

Letha Sheperd created a yard menagerie at her Wichita Home. "I never throw anything away, I make something out of it." She loved rocks, which were also incorporated into her creations. She especially loved her wishing well, made from a wringer washing machine which broke down and became art..

Earl Slagle - Manhattan, Kansas - 1925-2014

Wood/metal kinetic art

Earl Slagle worked for the forestry department at Kansas State University for 35 years, inventing machines to do whatever needed to be done. Retired, he was a man full of imagination, life and playfulness who still loved machines, metal and motors. Relieved of the necessity of doing "whatever needs to be done," Slagle's creations are many and varied.

Sandstone/Concrete Buffalo, Yard Art

Ray O Smith - Longford, Kansas - 1920-1999

Ray O. Smith lived on the Circle 3 Ranch near Longford, KS. He built a retaining wall of native Dakota sandstone unearthed from his own land. He visualized castles, sailboats and more in the natural stone formations. In his yard, he cast a giant U.S./Canadian map of colored concrete, and embedded rocks collected from his travels in each state or providence. Ray dreamed a 61-ton concrete and stone buffalo on the highest point of his ranch, so he and his brother built it. Smith raised exotic animals such as lions, bears, camels, and was a buffalo herdsman on his ranch.

Marlynne Snare - Garden City, Missouri

Paintings, Art Quilts

Marlynne Snare lives and creates at her farm that has been in the family for generations at Garden City, MO. She turns mental photographs into paintings and is a folk artist who is compelled to tell a story with her paintbrush. Marlynne has a love of family, home, church, country, history, and traditions. Simply walk into her home to take a trip down memory lane. Marlynne's paintings include 1950s memories of her childhood holidays at Easter, Independence Day, Memorial Day and Christmas in downtown Kansas City, MO. Each painting, greeting card, wooden cut-out is extremely detailed, and Snare can tell you a special memory about each little detail that has been included in the painting.

Martin Snyder - Manhattan, Kansas

Garden Environment

"I'm just a person who likes to work with my hands." said Martin Snyder. Since he was 8 years old he has been carving in wood. His yard and garage workspace are filled with his creations, all of which reflect his life experiences and interests. Snyder is self-taught, a nature lover, Vietnam vet, motorcycle fanatic, repairer of boilers and engines, an old hippie, and a proficient welder. Martin said, "It makes me feel like a whole person to do it."

Doren Spillman - Hoxie, Kansas - 1926-2015

Farm Machines

The descriptive words 'whimsy' and 'nostalgia' not only depict the man, Doren Spillman, but also his wooden carvings. For over 40 years he carved hundreds of sculptures with a Western theme creating cowboys, Indians, and horses ranging from 10" tall to life-size. Doren can just as easily carve life size figures of Uncle Sam, Elvis or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Spillman says, "I'm a tinkerer and I don't care what people think of my projects." About 1990 he created his only motorized sculpture the "mechanical farm." It highlights all the aspects of work on a farm in the early part of the twentieth century. In 2004 he created a "wheeley," a motorized, air-powered bicycle out of mainly recycled parts. This vehicle was featured in Popular Mechanics magazine.

Bob Stanley - Augusta, Kansas

Miniature Buildings

"Everybody ought to have a hobby," says Bob Stanley from Augusta, KS. Mr. Stanley was an aircraft mechanic for Boeing moving to the design team because Boeing wanted, "some good old boys who grew up making do with very little." The majority of his models are historic buildings in Augusta. Using skills he learned as a child to "make do" Bob creates structures using all sorts of materials. He makes shingles out of used veneer from old furniture, makes windowpanes out of strawberry baskets and window glass from 35mm exposed film. His scale is 1/2" to 1'.

Mary Starbuck - Ottawa, Kansas

Yard Environment

Mary Starbuck filled her yard with objects and embellishments, creating quite a sight in her town of Ottowa, KS, including a wishing well.

Glenn Stark - Kingman, Kansas - 1917-2014

Wood Sculptures

Glenn Stark of Kingman carved and whittled wooden figures most of his life. Much of his work, such as his cigar store Indians and stock commercial figures, falls in a traditional folk art category. Stark started creating an environment around his house with a western themed mural painted on a retaining wall, and large concrete Indians, buffaloes, horses, and longhorn cattle began appearing in his yard as well.

Raymond Fox Still - Sharon Springs, Kansas - 1920-2017

Outdoor styrofoam sculptures

At the very western edge of Kansas lives Fox Still, a skilled bow and arrow hunter and Black Powder Mountain Man. His yard environment began to take shape when he got the idea to make some unique archery targets for him and his friends to practice shoot. Wood, Styrofoam, and pipes are the main foundation for the bigger-than-life-size sculptures that are nestled among red cedars around the perimeter of his block square back yard in Sharon Springs. The target sculptures are delightful characters including the Abominable Snowman, Saber-Toothed Tiger, Energizer Bunny, gecko, Pink Panther, gorilla, Cyclops. Fox completed a Tyrannosaurus Rex in 2010. The dinosaur stands close to 15 feet tall.

Donald Surface - Mukilteo, Washington

Toys From Recycled Objects

One day Donald Surface of Mukilteo, Washington, was traveling the United States and came into the Grassroots Art Center. He took the tour and then shared his art with the director via post cards. A cast-off gun shell, an old tobacco tin, rusty chain, wooden Velveeta box, plumbing fixtures, and a discarded outdoor water faucet were the materials that Surface used to create miniature imaginary coal cars, gas pumps, tractors, boats, planes, trucks, and other objects.