Arts day

Always fun to run across someone as/more eccentric than me, especially one with actual artistic talent ...  Of note, S.P. Dinsmoor of Lucas, KS was a Civil War medic who eventually moved to KS.  He was a populist and artist of the 'grassroots' variety, meaning no formal training.  His medium was concrete!  He also utilized the area post rock limestone to build his home to resemble a log cabin ... the longest piece of quarried rock was 17', weighing nearly a ton.
Dinsmoor's intent was to always be a tourist destination, but he also made political and religious commentary with his work, as seen below.

 

 

Dinsmoor also tended to become so engrossed in his work that his wife felt he ignored her, so he created a little man to wave into her kitchen window.  Perhaps I should have done something like that for Daphne prior to beginning this trip.  But, he did make her a nice cabin - again, all from stone.

 

Adam and Eve

 

 

And for Halloween, Sophia got to see a mummy - Dinsmoor made himself a concrete casket and entombed himself with his wife in a concrete mausoleum.  No photos permitted, but he didn't look too bad for being dead so long!

 

We also visited the Willa Cather museum in Red Cloud, NE, where Sophia was introduced to one of America's premier 20th-century novelists whose portrayal of life and the struggles on the Great Plains were based upon her childhood there.

 

Who knew the Plains could be so artsy-fartsy...