Artful Crawler

The latest Excelsior Springs Art Crawl was Friday night and as always, artistic intrigue popped up in various ways about town. The first point of interest for me which had nothing to do with the Art Crawl occurred on a walk to Keith's new office in the Hall of Waters. I thought I had toured all of the accessible areas of the Art Deco wonder but found that en route to the office there were areas of the old spa I had never seen. Along the way, we encountered one of the old steam cabinets that one would sit in with one's head visible outside the box. I was also shown the Scotch Douche. Now the name of this device was enough to cause me to raise my eyebrows(and yes, snicker like the juvenile I am). The sight of it was even more alarming as it appeared to be a form of medieval water torture or something that would Simonize you inside and out. After researching it, I realized it was used to combine high-pressure alternating hot and cold water jets to treat ailments on the body. It is also the contraption that the Chief throws through the window in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Not unlike the Vichy showers we have at the Elms, which happen to involve my favorite spa treatment there but also can create a powerful Water Wedgie.

Onward to Gallery 105 to check out the exhibits....Jan Preston's layered, intricate work was on display for the last night and that's she and her guitarist husband pictured in front of her work. I also met Molly Roberts, a new artist in residence, who's an absolute hoot and a holler. She told us of her pet chicken named Romeo who typically accompanies her everywhere, most often in her purse. Later, we stopped by Ooey Gooey chocolates where the Peekaboos were on display. The Peekaboos are homemade chocolate chip cookies with rich icing in between and they reminded me of the Double Doozy cookies Kristy and I would buy to take into the movies with us when we were kids.

At Willow Spring Mercantile, Daphne had wine tastings and live music and she herself was adorned with the work of the artist in residence. Lee Genoway is the designer of Envisage Vintage Jewelry and I found much of her work breathtaking. Much of the jewelry involves antique stopwatches and the detail of the work is astounding. The piece I have pictured at top involves a Malaysian beetle who's natural emerald hue and red eyes make for a mesmerizing centerpiece to one of the stopwatches. Check out her site at http://envisagevintage.com/.

We finished off the night with a relaxing dinner at Ventana with Keith's parents. I had the delicious Bruschetta Burger and Keith had the housemade lasagna which was huge and yummy. He also got the last piece much to the chagrin of some of the other diners. We all split a magnificent piece of housemade blackberry cheesecake with a walnut crust for dessert.









The creativity was evident all around town tonight.