A quote by Danish-French Impressionist painter Camille Passarro stopped me in my tracks during our day at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City. Or maybe it was the pinks, purples and blues of the sky, hidden behind stark, leafless trees in a wall-size painting.
I didn't know anything about Pissarro before our visit. But the quote inspired me to do a little research. The quote ties in with another of his reflections: "Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing."
It went on to say these quotes "reflect his artistic philosophy that true beauty does not depend on grand or inherently majestic subjects, but rather on the artist's unique vision and ability to perceive and convey the character of everyday scenes."
Now I can relate to that!
So can some Kansas poets. When we visited the Kansas State Fair this year, I saw several placards that featured poetry with the theme, "There Is No Place Like Home." Later, I learned that the state fair poetry was part of a project spearheaded by current Kansas Poet Laureate Traci Brimhall. She partnered with Kansas 4-H groups to collect poems from Kansas students. This was the third year for the project, but it was the first time I saw them on our trek throughout the fairgrounds. (You can see all the poems at the poet laureate's website by clicking HERE. I love several of them!)
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| Sunrise, September 29, 2026 |
One of those poems was:
Van Gogh Colors in Kansas
by Janice Northerns
Thick slabs of gold hold up the cobalt sky
in a vacant landscape. It’s the loneliness
of the prairie, the solitude of flyover country.
You, urban girl, sneer you’d never live here:
Kansas is no place like home to you.
Yet somehow each visit finds you drawn
to another quirky store or a house
you long to own. This place, patient
with secrets, waits for your gaze to linger
long enough to find the sunflowers, acres
of welcome ready to catch you as the blue-black
night, steeped deep in stars, calls you
to a memory you didn’t know you missed.
Isn't it amazing how life intersects in these random messages?
"Everyday scenes" are part and parcel of life here on The County Line, smack dab in the middle of "flyover country."
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| Sunrise looking west, August 27, 2026 |
But why would I want to escape these "everyday scenes" that are so extraordinary, here "on the loneliness of the prairie," as the poet says.
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| Sunrise, September 29, 2026 |
They are nature's Impressionist paintings, served up as a rich banquet before I even can finish a cup of coffee.
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| Sunset, August 26, 2026 |
Kansas Poet and Novelist
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| Sunrise, August 27, 2026 |
Even though we love our "little house on the prairie," we also enjoyed getting away and touring the museum.
We found the Monet Water Lilies I was looking for ... with a little help from a docent. I'd seen it on another trip to the Nelson-Atkins, but it had a new home this time.
Water Lilies was created between 1915 and 1926. On the museum placard, it said Monet transformed his pond in Giverny, France, into a vast, living subject.
"Its fluid rhythms and botanical abstraction reflect shared ideals between Impressionism and the "New Art" movement. Both hold reverence for nature and blur boundaries between environment and art."
The interpretation of the painting tied right into the nature, environment and art theme from Pissarro - just another subliminal message tying life together.
Afterwards, we visited Andre's, a Swiss chocolate shop nearby, where we both had coffee and Randy had a rum ball. The place mat and much of the packaging had yet another art form: Scherenschmitte, a traditional Swiss paper-cutting art.
Then, we got to spend time with Brent and Susan over the weekend ... and with grand dog, Clover. If only our 'Cats could have pulled off a win vs. Cincinnati on that football Saturday.
