Grassroots Heaven

This week I'm offering up a peek at Lucas, KS, population 392. To look at a map, you wouldn't think there'd be much to this tiny town, but you'd be wrong. On Monday, I started off with a bang by featuring their public restrooms. Today I'm getting a bit more hi-falutin'. Today it's the Grassroots Art Center.


"What is grassroots art exactly?" They define it as:

Grassroots art is a term describing art made by people with no formal artistic training . . . (usually of retirement age) using ordinary materials in an extraordinary way . . . and frequently creating a whole artistic environment around themselves, effectively making themselves part of the artwork.

Many of the artists whose work they featured had undergone a tragedy and turned to art as a means of expression, of comfort, of obsession... whatever their motivations, each untrained artist found possibility and a certain kind of beauty in their medium and craft. Some may say it's kitschy; some may say it's quirky, but it was all undeniably done with each artist's whole heart, which is what I found so touching and inspiring about this center. Not to mention some really cool stuff.

Here were a few of the highlights:

This is a small sample of her yard scupltures.

Our tour guide told us about this woman who married a man late in life. His daughters didn't approve of the marriage and - like a reverse Cinderella - made their stepmother's life miserable. So the woman created her own friends to keep her company. Her entire yard was filled with these whimsical statues. Upon her death, the stepdaughters took everything to the dump. The items at right were all that could be salvaged.

Check out the face in the bleach bottle.

The museum is housed in what appears to be an old bank. Inside the vault room they set up a collection (mostly hanging) of one man's garbage art. Using recycled materials, he created mobiles, "stained glass" (made with marker and tape) and various scupltures.

A car made entirely of old soda can pull tabs.

A second location houses pieces rendered from children's old toys.

And lastly, a former school teacher created renditions of places she had visited on vacation as scupltures in her back yard. Before she passed away, she gave tours to school children, often wearing high heels and white gloves. Can you guess where she went on vacation for this one?