Today I got lucky and hitched a ride to our Capital City with my darling daughter. Daughter Number Three serves on the state CURB (Citizens Utilities Ratepayers Board). Appointed by Governor Sam Brownback, she attends quarterly meetings at the Kansas Corporation Commission building in Topeka. I tagged along today, and while she attended her meeting, I went over to the capitol building to see the renovations and to speak to several legislator friends.
Wow. What a splendid treasure, our beautiful capitol. I went up, down, and all around snapping away.
This is a large hooked rug representation of our state seal, which hangs outside the Senate Chamber Visitor's Gallery. I love our state seal. Here is the Senate President's desk.
These beautiful copper columns, also in the Senate Chamber, were hand cast in Italy in the 1880's.
Our gorgeous rotunda from the ground floor.
(click on this one, you'll be glad you did!)
The fabulous copper columns at the top have been polished 'til they glow.
Here's a closer look...
The library got a make-over too...shhhhhh...
They removed many layers of paint to restore the lovely artwork on the ceiling.
The new, stunning, highly polished brass railing hosts a Kansas sunflower garden!
The House
Look at those fabulous marble columns. The names you see all around the top of the room, are those of ten prominent abolitionists, and were discovered in the 1998 restoration. Cool, huh?
Gazing down on the second floor rotunda - home to our four famous Kansans...
Dwight Eisenhower, William Allen White, Arthur Capper, and...
our particular Kansas Darling, Amelia Earhart! :)
The marble throughout the capitol is astoundingly beautiful. Rose marble, dark red marble from Belgium, black and white from Georgia, brown from Tennessee. Marble from Italy and Mexico found a happy home in Kansas, as well!
Look at this lovely gold leaf molding and the vivid color of the fantastic murals that cover the walls of the second floor...
...which, of course, includes the piece de resistance (in my opinion)...
our glorious Tragic Prelude by John Curry - the representation of John Brown and the antislavery movement. I have always been an ardent admirer of John Brown, and do not believe he was the crazed fanatic depicted here and in so many history books. Being willing to die for one's beliefs does not make one crazy...it makes one courageous and intrepid...a man or woman of valor.
Here is where I will interject my only criticism of the restoration/renovation process that the capitol has undergone. The lighting on the murals is horrible. What were they thinking? Did they consult anyone from an art museum for advice on how to highlight and showcase all these beautiful paintings without that dreadful glare? There is no vantage point from which to view these works of art without that garish glare. Disappointing at best, really aggravating at worst!
..................
One of the most striking elements of the work done can be seen on every floor...because it is the staircases! I've been to this great building many times, but never noticed the balusters that make up the balustrades. There are thirty of them from the ground floor to the fifth. And every single one is crafted of copper. I hadn't noticed them before, because they were tarnished and dark. Now they are stunningly polished and positively glow! Those beautiful copper balustrades, topped with shining brass handrails, make the whole place....glow. I can't think of another word! Not sparkle nor shine...because the effect is suffused with warmth. Yes. They just glow.
These lovely stained glass windows by Topeka artist Patrick McKinney, were installed in 1976 during the U.S. Bicentennial celebration.
Time to go. I'm so grateful I got to see this grand edifice that is a monument to all that I love about my home state. Kansas. Open and free, land of a rich heritage of pioneering spirit, hard work, determination, and courage. Temperate yet bold, modest yet proud, we embrace blessing with gratitude and face adversity with grit. As with all brilliant art, each of these characteristics are clearly depicted through the sculptors' gifted hands, the artists' skilled brushstrokes, and the mastery of the multitude of masons, carpenters, iron and metal workers, and architects.
I walked back out into the crisp, clean Kansas February day. The work on the capitol dome continues, she still bristles with scaffolding. Even so, I thinks she's lovely.
Ad Astra, the bronze Kanza Indian created by Salina sculptor Richard Bergen, stands proudly atop the dome, depicting our state motto, "Ad Astra Per Aspera" - to the stars through difficulty - his arrow appropriately pointing to the North Star.
...and no, darling, I am not trying to peek beneath your loincloth...
I love you, Kansas!
