Snow days means snow play for area kids

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK

anne@iolaregister.com

WHEN Iola school kids faced three days without classes this week, parents had to get creative to fill the hours. 

Bitterly cold temperatures precluded all-day outdoor play, but that didn’t stop Madison and Haley Carlin from taking advantage of snow piles formed when driveways and streets were plowed.

“Yesterday we helped the neighbors build a couple forts,” said nine-year-old Haley. “They just shoveled the snow into piles and we dug out tunnels.”

The girls, along with neighbors Chloe and Carter Wilson, Chase and Cole Regehr and Ben Cooper, tunneled as far as they could, said Madison. 

“We were going to make (the tunnel go) the whole way through, but it collapsed.”

On Thursday, there was still enough space to wiggle a 10-year-old figure into the hole, with only a head poking out.

“We worked outside until we felt like our toes were going to fall off,” Haley said of Wednesday’s endeavors. 

Then, everyone poured indoors for cocoa.

“I think we used every mug in the house,” their mother Terri said, for cocoa and a cheesy chili dish that Haley pointed out could be eaten as either a soup or a dip. 

“Some people like to eat it with chips,” she suggested.

The collection of neighbor kids also left a trail of wet mittens and clothes for Terri to contend with. 

On Thursday, it was whole-house cleanup time.

“The girls shampooed this rug for me,” she said of the entrance hall where all the gear had been shed the day before.

And Haley was singing along to Hannah Montana while mopping the kitchen floor, her mom said.

Madison had the task of putting away a double load of laundry.

“We had a lot of different plans,” Terri said of ideas for filling the extra hours. 

“We could work on our valentines or young author assignments,” she said of school-related chores.

In the end, though, “We just ended up doing whatever.”

WEDNESDAY also became movie day. Being Groundhog’s Day, the family watched that iconic Bill Murray film. “Roger” — the girl’s father — “kept wondering if that’s what was happening to him — he’d wake up and every day would be a snow day,” Terri said. 

Roger Carlin also was grounded those days school was out — he is a seventh grade teacher at Iola Middle school.

“But he got out,” Terri said of her husband. “He went to the store for groceries. I never left the house” and yard, she said. 

Other movies the family indulged in were the “High School Musical” trilogy.

“At one point I looked up and realized the girls had moved on to something else,” said Terri. “I was the only one still watching.” 

Terri admitted to enjoying the down time, but also to missing her “other kids” — she teaches third grade at McKinley Elementary. She wondered what some of her students were doing to fill their time.

A sound at the door led to another neighbor’s visit — this time dog Chloe, over to visit the Carlin’s dog, Libby. 

“She loves running in this snow,” Terri said of their terrier/beagle mix.

Earlier, Terri showed off Libby’s repertoire of tricks — from jumping four feet for a piece of cheese to playing dead when she heard the word “Bang!”

Throughout the day’s activities, Madison kept up a constant conversation via text message with a friend who planned to visit later in the day.

“I asked her if, when she was over, they were going to actually talk to each other face-to-face,” Terri joked.   

But phone calls also were a part of the family’s week, Terri added. 

“We got to talk to my mom — she lives in Texas.” 

Terri’s mom, “is not used to this much snow,” a topic of a number of their calls. Her mom’s town of Garland “had a lot of ice” she said, and also had shut down services — including her mom’s final chemo treatment at her local hospital — until the weather cleared.

“She called and told me she’d be able to go in Friday,” Terri said.

ON THURSDAY afternoon, sunshine beckoned the girls back outside to explore the previous day’s creations and slide down mountains of snow bermed along the edge of the street. Snow angels appeared in pristine white and hats and scarves lost the day before were rediscovered.

Finally, a large bowl was used to scoop out clean snow and taken indoors.

The girls mixed “1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla and 2 cups milk with a gallon of snow,” they volunteered. “You stir it up in a big bowl until it gets creamy, then you eat it,” Haley announced.

The resultant “snow cream” was a delightful creamy blend with a texture that crossed gelato with granita.

It was a fitting treat.

A new lens on life

COLONY — After retiring in 2002 from a career as an elementary educator, Phyllis Luedke is embarking full steam into her new hobby: nature photography.

Luedke has always harbored an interest in photography, she said, but never had the time to devote to it until recently.

Now, she’ll take off on a day trip, like a recent one to John Redmond Reservoir near Burlington, that netted a series of pictures of slabs of ice, broken and crashed upon the shore. “They sparkled so much, but I couldn’t get that,” Luedke said of ice farther from shore.

“I like to go out in spring and summertime and take pictures of wildflowers and sunrises,” she said.

In winter, Luedke trains her lens upon a backyard bird feeder, where she has shot cardinals, flickers and songbirds as they feed.

Luedke came upon her interest in photography via her love for the natural world.

“I grew up in Lone Elm and went to high school at Kincaid, when they still had a high school there,” Luedke said. “I grew up on a farm, so I’m kind of a naturalist,” she added.

On the farm, she loved the wildflowers, she said. “We’d pick dried flowers in the fall and make bouquets,” she noted.

Luedke attended Junior College in Iola, then pursued a bachelor’s degree in elementary education at Kansas State Teachers College, now Emporia State University.

Luedke began her teaching career at Madison, south of Emporia, “then I went to Moran, Colony and Le Roy,” she said. Along the way she taught kindergarten, second, third and fourth grades, along with Title 1 reading and math.

While still teaching at Madison, Luedke said, some of the other teachers encouraged her to sign up with them for “some National Science Federation classes” offered through ESU. The classes “were free because at that time, in the early 1960s, they were trying to build up science education.”

One class, she said, took place in summer. The teachers rode covered wagons, drawn by huge Belgian horses, across the Flint Hills, studying the natural world as they went.

“That was one of the most interesting,” classes, Luedke said. “We camped out,” and learned about prairie plants and ecology, she said.

Even then, she said, “I took pictures, but it was just a point and shoot thing” — using film, she noted.

FAST FORWARD to 2009. 

At the Allen County Fair, Luedke noticed the photographs on display.

“I thought, ‘I’d like to do that.’” Noticing most of the photos came form 4-H members, Luedke said, “I called the County Extension and inquired about a photography instructor.”

She was referred to Anna Catterson at Allen County Community College. “So in (fall of) 2009, I enrolled in a photography class,” Luedke said.

Luedke pulls out a large binder, carefully categorized with photography assignments from that class. An illustrated alphabet, with letters made of rolled iron fencing, crossing branches or barbed wire strung just so comprised Luedke’s examples.

“We took all kinds of photos,” Luedke noted, “Sports, landscape, flowers.” Sports, she said, were her least favorite. “It’s hard to get the lighting right,” and capture rapid movement, she said.

Her favorite — and her forte — are close-up pictures of flowers. One, of a bee on a milkweed blossom, was accepted into the book “Best of College Photography, 2010,” put out by Photographer’s Forum magazine.

Luedke also has taken photography workshops, she said, including one on photographing butterflies at Powell Gardens, east of Kansas City.

“And then I saw in the Register where the Kansas Native Plant Society was having a two-day excursion in Pittsburg,” she said. The weekend included field trips and lessons about native flowers. And, there was a photography contest.

She entered.

“I didn’t place,” she said. “I was disappointed. I thought mine were pretty good — but theirs were better. That made me feel I wanted to try again the next year.” Which she did.

In 2010, Luedke received four second place and one first place wins in the KNPS contest.

“This year I practiced my skills and did better,” she said. 

To facilitate taking even better photographs, Luedke bought herself a longer lens for Christmas. The macro lens pulls images in closer, for more detail.

“Another thing I got myself was an extension tube. You put it between your lens and your camera body and it extends out farther,” enhancing the macro effect of the lens, she said.

Luedke said despite all the automatic settings on modern, digital cameras, she prefers to use the manual focus setting.

“On auto focus, you don’t have any control,” she said.

And, although she is teaching herself Photoshop, she doesn’t like to manipulate her pictures much beyond cropping.

She won’t change a photograph’s color, for example, “because it doesn’t look natural,” she said.

Mostly, she said, “I like to look on the computer and see what other folks have done,” by visiting photo share sites such as Flickr. 

“People look at photographs and think it’s easy,” she mused. “I take a lot of bad pictures” to get a few good ones, she said.

Luedke has just begun marketing her photography, predominantly through craft fairs. She sells framed collages and large prints, small refrigerator magnets and mugs. “I put all my snow pictures together and made a DVD,” as well, she said. “There’s close to 150 pictures there, coupled with easy-listening music.” The DVD is available at Duane’s Flowers in Iola and Country Diner in Colony, or by calling her at 620-852-3572.

Still, “I don’t consider myself a professional at all,” Luedke said. “I just do it as a hobby. I don’t think I’m going to get rich.”

Coloring their world: Texas artist teaches students new way to see

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK

anne@iolaregister.com

Iola High School students Wednesday through today engaged in what has become an annual opportunity — a workshop by Texas pastel artist Steve Napper.

Napper, of Odessa, Texas, happened upon teaching Iola students for the past “14 or 15 years” thanks to former Iola elementary art teacher Steve Orcutt.

Years before, “I befriended the Orcutts in Colorado,” Napper said.

“We were doing a big art show” one year, he said. “They happened to be staying at the same hotel.”

As fate would have it, the painters’ auctioneer “didn’t show up, and Steve volunteered his services,” Napper said.

A friendship bloomed, along with an invitation from the Orcutts for Napper to come share his skills, perfected over 43 years as a pastel painter, with Iola’s students.

“I thought it would be just a one-time thing,” Napper said, “but it’s grown.”

Napper shares his knowledge of the medium, along with hints and tips on producing a painting, with students over the course of three days. Day one is lectures, where students learn technique, materials and design. Days two and three involve hands-on assignments, with Napper present to coach the students.

2011 marked junior Shauna Van Etten’s “third year at the workshops,” she said. 

“I’ve learned how to use the warm and cool colors and how to use pastels. It’s very helpful,” she said of Napper’s instruction. 

In the near future, she hopes to couple her love of art with her love of cooking in pursuit of world culinary art and management, she said.

It was Hannah Norris’s first time using pastels. “It’s interesting — it’s different,” she said. “I’m normally a sketcher. I never color my drawings; I always shade them. This,” she said of the vibrant blues, greens, fuchsias and golds, “is a little out of my comfort zone.”

Sophomore Nathan Meadows, an aspiring art teacher himself, enjoyed blending blues and greens to form a hill above  a paler river. He typically draws with pencils, he said, and found the pastels “messier.”

Mess is in the nature of the material, Napper explained, walking across floors of the Dale P. Creitz Recital Hall festooned with protective plastic sheets.

Pastels, Napper noted, “are really the most colorfast and permanent of all media because it’s pure pigment.” 

Pigments, including metals such as aluminum and iron oxides, cadmium and mineral pigments, are ground to a paste with a binder, then rolled into sticks. 

“I can grind that pastel up and mix it with oil and it’s oil paint,” Napper continued.

Chalk, on the other hand, “is dyed,” Napper said. There is no pure pigment in it. “Chalks will fade,” he said.

Chalk, he said anecdotally, is fine for sidewalk drawings. Pastel, however, will stain.

Both, however, are messy to work with, producing dust as the sticks are scraped across paper, cardboard or other surfaces.

“(Henri de Toulouse-) Lautrec painted on butcher’s paper; (Edgar) Degas painted on cardboard,” Napper said of the famous impressionists.

Napper said the reason pastels in museums are hung in low light situations is to preserve the paper the artists worked on — not the pigment. 

“The paper deteriorates, not the pastel,” he told students.

Because of its soft and easily smeared nature, pastel paintings must be put behind glass, or sprayed with a fixative to prevent them smudging.

But, Napper said, “You kill the luminosity by putting a fixative on it.” In its natural state, he said, pastels paintings neither lighten nor darken over time. “You can come back in a year” and it’s the same as the day you worked on it, he said.

In addition, papers today are “museum grade,” compared to those of the impressionistic era. 

Napper also had on hand Styrofoam insulation sheets, cut into segments, to use for blending. If using fingers, oils from one’s hand alter the pigments, he said, and “kill the color.”

Emerald Rook was getting hints form Napper on how to shade a stream bank. “It makes it more life-like and gives it a forward extension,” Rook said of the changes to her drawing. 

Napper also taught the students “to paint by value and not by color,” he said. “I try to teach them to paint by temperature,” he explained, selecting warm or cool tones rather than matching the colors of the photographs used as guides.

In that style, sophomore Haydn Wolf was creating “a beautiful sky” — in greens, pink, blues and black. 

“I’ve learned a lot already,” Wolf said of working with the pastels — and with Napper. “I learned lights and darks put things in the foreground and background,” he said. 

“This is my first time ever doing this,” Wolf added. “I think it’s fun — it’s almost like a child with finger paints.”

Colorful quilts dazzle, delight

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK

anne@iolaregister.com

Lenexa fabric artist Ada Niedenthal is adept at traditional quilting methods — just don’t call her a quilter.

Niedenthal, whose machine-pieced fabric wall hangings range in size from about a foot square to more than three by four feet, said, “I am not a traditional quilter; but I am an artist.”

Niedenthal, 63, began sewing at the age of five, she said. But she didn’t delve into the world of art until 2002, when she retired from a career in landscape architecture.

Niedenthal received a bachelor’s degree in art from Wichita State University in 1972 and a masters in landscape architecture from Kansas State University in 1977. 

She worked as a landscaper in Minnesota, Indiana and the Kansas City metro area for 25 years, she said.

After retirement, fabric art came naturally, she said. 

“I’m a very tactile person; it had to be something I could touch,” she said of her choice of medium.

Despite the imagery of Niedenthal pieces — trees, grain fields, flashy colors and abstract patterns — many of the hangings are made using standard quilt block methods, she pointed out.

“I really do not applique at all,” she said.  “The geometry of piecing is what intrigues me.”

To make such organic designs work on a geometric ground, “It all has to be worked out ahead of time,” Niedenthal said.

“Several are paper-pieced,” she noted. “I plan out the whole thing on freezer paper — to scale — and cut it out and piece it that way.”

Another tool Niedenthal uses is a “design wall” — “It’s like a bulletin board” large enough to pin up a work in progress, she said, to observe how colors and patterns work together . 

Design walls can be made of many materials, Niedenthal said, noting, “Mine is pieces of foam insulation.”

“That’s how I work out a lot of my color arrangements,” she said, “by working them on the wall first.”

Niedenthal’s work is “inspired by things I see, hear and read. I grew up in Kansas, so I’m inspired by the landscape, also” she added. 

One hanging, “Amber Waves,” is evocative of a prairie field, with bands of gold fabric rolling in the lower half of the piece and strips of sky blue above.
Only after a second look does one see the outline of heads of wheat, stitched into the field.

“In all of them I dyed a lot of my own fabric,” Niedenthal said of her work, another observation best made up-close.

Tree branches are painted on one hanging, another has overdyed calico rimming a collection of colored circles.

Niedenthal said she screen prints, stamps and paints her fabrics as well. “It’s all surface embellishment,” she said of the techniques.

A series of smaller hangings were “inspired by some scraps of fabric,” she said. “I use all kinds of fabric — neckties, old silk blouses, recycled clothing, cotton blends,” she said.

And, “I like color now “ she said. “I don’t know that I always (did),” but these days, Niedenthal said, “I’m intrigued by how color works together.”

That is apparent in the dazzling displays of fuchsia, turquoise, rich emerald greens and shining copper and gold touches in her pieces.

In addition, beads and buttons embellish others. One piece, “Squandered” is rife with words representing the years that George W. Bush spent in presidential office, Niedenthal said.

The tiny stitched letters require a close-up view; from a distance, the piece looks rosy.

When seeking out quilt designs, Niedenthal advised, “look around. Go to art shows, to galleries, look beyond (traditional) quilts.” 

An opening reception for artist Ada Niedenthal will be 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Mary L. Martin Gallery in the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. Enter through the east doors; refreshments will be served. 

The event is part of Iola’s week-long Kansas 150 celebration. 

Year-end numbers in at ACARF

Allen County Animal Rescue Facility has adopted out 106 animals in its first five months of operation. 

Since opening July 5, the low-kill facility has placed 30 cats and 76 dogs and returned one cat and 26 dogs to owners. In addition, 14 dogs were sent to breed rescue organizations, and four cats and one dog are in foster care. All told, 194 dogs and 68 cats have come through the facility. The shelter is full, with 53 dogs and 26 cats available for adoption, including the quiet but larger Chico, whose adoption fees have already been paid.

Shelter hours are 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

ACARF will be closed this Friday and Saturday for the New Year holiday and will reopen Tuesday.

Rikki is a mature smaller dog that has been at ACARF for a few months now. She would love a forever home. 

Chico, a resident at Allen County Rescue Facility since the day it opened, awaits adoption to a forever home. Chico’s family was forced to give up the middle-aged dog when they moved, and paid his adoption fee in hopes he would more easily find a new home. He waits patiently, still wagging his tail each time visitors go by.

Budget banter fills Farm Bureau talk

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK

anne@iolaregister.com

Newly minted state senator Jeff King and other local politicians were on hand Monday night for an Allen County Farm Bureau Association board of directors legislative update.

King, an Independence attorney in private practice, was joined by County Commissioners Rob Francis and Gary McIntosh and Rep. Bill Otto for the informal talk. 

King was appointed Dec. 11 to fill the remainder of the term vacated when Sen. Derek Schmidt was elected attorney general. He moves over from the House of Representatives.

King said past Kansas legislatures erroneously “bragged about balancing the budget without passing taxes, but what we did was pass expenses on to cities and counties.” Unfortunately, with the current economic crisis, he said, budgets will get no better this year.

“Gov. Brownback’s budget came out Thursday,” King observed, “but I haven’t been able to see it yet to see if we’ve put a stop to taking money from cities and counties — or if there just isn’t anything left to take.”

King noted federal highway funds and state liquor taxes are about the only revenue pots the state has not yet dipped its fingers into.

On the county level, Francis said “everyone should realize their ditches probably won’t get mowed again this year.” The cutback last year to mowing just intersections along county roads saved Allen County $163,000 in fuel and labor costs, he said. 

“We’re looking into using a retardant” to control vegetative growth along roads instead, McIntosh added.

An added expense facing the county will be replacing older road signs, commissioners said.

REGARDING EDUCATION, King warned that base funding for per pupil K-12 will be cut further.

King, like others, noted the state did not seek means to replace federal stimulus dollars used to prop up education the past two years. 

Although state revenue collection is up “$240 million above where it was the year before,” the loss of $500 million in federal dollars equates to a $260 million loss for the state, King said.

That, coupled with enrollments having risen statewide, will mean less money for individual schools, King said.

King did vow to try to make the cuts “as small as we can and as smart as we can.”

King also noted deep flaws in the budget of the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System, calling it “the second-worst situation” facing public retirement systems in the country. 

He said, “We’ll pay your KPERS. It’s a contractual obligation.” But he promised cuts to the program in 2013.

And, he reminded those present, “If you don’t like something I do, you don’t have to vote for me next time.” 

King said he does plan to run for the office in 2012.

Other questions the panel faced included the new governor’s view on environmental policy and economic development. No firm commitment was made on any topic, other than to try to “push government down to the local level as far as you can,” King said.

Punch card for prizes part of KS 150 week

As an incentive (or merely a bonus) for those attending next week’s Kansas 150 events in Iola, a punch card for prizes will be offered and clipped at each program.

Participants need to collect two punches through the week to be eligible for prizes, which include an autographed photo of Kansas City Chiefs star Jamaal Charles, Allen County Historical Society memorabilia and a Kansas 150 hooded sweatshirt.

Cards will also be punched for visits to the Allen County Historical Museum and for checking out Kansas materials at the Iola Public Library.

Cards are available at ACHS, the library, the Bowlus Fine Arts Center or at any of the Kansas 150 Week events. 

Punched cards should be dropped off at the Historical Society through the week, or brought to the Kansas 150 birthday party  before 3:30 p.m. Jan. 29.

THE WEEK’S celebrations begin with fabric artist Ada Niedenthal’s reception at the Mary L. Martin Gallery of the Bowlus Fine Arts Center, 2-4 p.m. Sunday. 

Monday features historical films and photographs presented by Max Snodgrass at the Bowlus at 7 p.m.

Tuesday finds Iolans trying to solve “History’s Mysteries” at the Frederick Funston Meeting Hall, 207 N. Jefferson Ave., beginning at 7 p.m. 

Wednesday afternoon, children’s librarian Leah Oswald offers up “Kansas: One State, Many Stories,” to listeners of all ages. The program starts at 3 p.m. in the Flewharty-Powell annex of the Iola Public Library.

“Let’s Talk Kansas Books!” is Thursday’s event, at 7 p.m. in the Flewharty-Powell annex. Five Iolans will expound on five books related to people or events in the Sunflower State.

Friday, Iolans can enjoy the classical strains of the Lyric Arts Trio performing “Ad Astra” at the Bowlus. Fifth graders will be treated to the tunes at 1:30 p.m.; all others are welcome at 7 p.m.

On Saturday, celebrate Kansas’ 150th year of statehood with a party at the Allen County Historical Museum, 20 S. Washington Ave. New exhibits will be on display and punch card prize winners will be chosen.

All events are free and open to the public; refreshments will be served.