Silly seats a fun way to public privy
By MIKE CORN
LUCAS -- The goal is to raise enough money to build public restrooms in a community that beckons visitors from near and far to see its weighty collection of grassroots art.
The fun will be getting there.
Appropriately enough for the project at hand -- as well as the community it is taking place in -- toilet seats that will likely never serve the purpose for which they were designed, are being used to help raise money to pay for the project.
Some, such as the barbed wire entry that Sharon Springs resident Ernie Poe offered up, would certainly be unsuitable -- for obvious reasons. A feathered entry, while certainly not as painful, likely would be just as unsuitable.
In fact, none of the more than 60 entries are intended for use in restrooms. They are, instead, works of art that are currently part of a silent auction, the proceeds of which will be used to build the much-needed restroom.
The design of that restroom, in a vacant lot a block north of the Grassroots Arts Center in downtown Lucas, would be in keeping with the artistic soul of the community and its attraction to thousands of visitors each year.
Billed as the Great Toilet Seat Art Show and Auction, it is an effort by both the Flying Pig Art Studio and the Grassroots Arts Center.
The plan is to use colored glass and concrete to create the facility. That would be in keeping with the style of the late Ed Root, whose works adorn the arts center.
Sixty entries have been submitted, according to Grassroots Art Center director Rosslyn Schultz.
The fundraising effort will help pay for the cost of the project, estimated at about $100,000, some of which will come from in-kind services though either the city of Lucas or by work details by area prisoners.
The city, in fact, offered $25,000 as seed money for the project. Additional grants are coming from the Hansen Foundation in Logan. Schultz recently submitted a grant proposal to the National Foundation for the Arts.
"This year, we're going to try to raise the funds," she said.
The toilet-seat effort, she said, has been "so much fun."
Already, local artist Mri-Pillar, who has transformed what had been known as the Florence Deeble residence, has been working on two pieces outside the home that utilizes the Root method of concrete and colored glass.
Arts center supporter Tess Dunkel-McKnight had plenty of fun creating toilet seats for the campaign.
"Only eight," she said of how many exhibits she submitted for the campaign.
However, she still has two more seats that are partly complete and simply haven't been finished.
Dunkel-McKnight is an ardent supporter of the Grassroots Arts Center.
"I've got a background as an art therapist," she said. "A lot of what they do resonates with me."
As well, she's an artist in her own right, drawing and designing quilts from her residence in Luray. She also has a home in Lucas, but that's something of an artist's residence, as well as a work in progress, she said.
She's delighted with the community's campaign, especially since it will be an "attraction that happens to be a restroom."
One of her entries shows the face of a woman, perhaps a self-portrait. Written below the face, "Lucas, KS, needs public restrooms period."
That's not her favorite piece, however. That would be a musical stool, a gaily colored toilet seat perched atop four legs.
"It's a different kind of fun," she said.
Dunkel-McKnight moved to Lucas in 1994 from southern California, working on the house she bought. She moved to Luray when she married in 2002.
"I work on quilts in my spare time," she said. "I do all my designs."
She also draws, bedroom drawings she calls them, reflecting her moods. As a result, there can be several of them.
"They're pretty much self-portraits," she said.
She has determined she's made more than 10,000 drawings.
"And I quit counting," Dunkel-McKnight said.
When she first moved to Lucas, the Grassroots Art Center was just taking shape.
She finds it exciting that the community is working to construct a public restroom while making it a piece of art.
Lucas, in terms of the S.P. Dinsmoor's Garden of Eden and the community as a mecca for grassroots art, earned it a spot as a finalist for the 8 Wonders of Kansas Art, in a campaign sponsored by the Kansas Sampler Foundation.
Schultz said the community has been urging votes on its behalf, both online at 8wonders.org and through paper ballots that they have ready to hand out.
They were able to resist the temptation to offer the ballots Lucas already marked, but just barely.
The 8 Wonders campaign is being seen as a huge boost, just as the fundraising venture is under way.
"It's well worth the trip to Lucas to see the toilet seats," Schultz said, adding that sites elsewhere in the community are worth a visit as well. "Hopefully, we'll generate some interest with these."
The toilet seats are on display at the Flying Pig Studio. The silent auction for many of the seats will continue until 3 p.m. Oct. 18. At that time, there will be an auction for several other seats.
All of the proceeds will go to the public restroom campaign.
Photos of the toilet seats and information about the campaign are at www.lucaskansas.com.