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Salina, KS

7/9/2022

We’ve just made a road trip from Denver to the east coast where we live. We stopped the first night in Salina, Kansas and came upon this massive mural in downtown Salina and these other scenes. The mural was painted by the artist Guido Van Helton. It depicts a group of children at play. Their figures encircle the entire structure which is about 100 feet tall. These giants play where, 120 years ago or so, grain from farms across the prairies was gathered, presumably for shipping to markets through out the country.

These grain elevators are crumbling. (Where does that grain go now?) This whole part of the city is crumbling away and stands as silent testimony to loss. It is a haunting place. I would love to know the story of what happened here..

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Making a start

6/27/2022

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I’ve long felt that the details of an etched copper plate (above) are just as beautiful as the print that is finally made from them. These intricately detailed surfaces call out to be explored, and as much as anything,, cause me to ask, what am I seeing?

This is the 19th century log cabin that I found in upper Montgomery County and that gave rise to the plate I’ve mentioned above. You don’t see the logs, because the entire structure is sheathed in badly beaten up corrugated metal. And how I love that texture.. The last time I passed by, this building was still standing…barely.

The building by itself isn’t as visually interesting to me as all of the various details. And, I’m not interested in depicting any narrative about this building, though there is a rich one here. But the details are so arresting. That is what I’m after..

Finally, here is a detail printed from the plate (first image above)... There is nothing so fine as an etched line.. The heavy, ropey lines are made from engraved lines added after the etching process. I often think of a copper plate in process as a very low-relief sculpture. There is such a richness to prints.

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Salina, KS

Making a start

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