Grassroots Art Center
Lucas, KS
November-March Hours:
Thursday-Saturday 11am-4pm
April & October Hours:
Monday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday 11am-4pm | Sunday 1-4pm
May - September Hours:
Monday - Saturday 10am- 5 pm / Sunday 1 -5 pm
Albert DeBrabander - Lenexa, Kansas - 1934-2015
Metal Environment
Albert "Bert" DeBrabander worked for 35 years pouring concrete as a basement contractor in the Kansas City area. In retirement, he found himself "needing something to do in the winter time." It most certainly was not sculpting in concrete, so he picked up a welding torch and began looking for interesting pieces of old implement scrap metal. He started planting metal figures and assorted items on his rural acreage near Lenexa. While hunting near Russell, Bert decided to purchase the old Boot Hill Cafe's 15-foot fiberglass cowboy boot and the postrock limestone signage. This boot has become the identifying trademark of this metal cowboy-and-Indian themed environment. One day he put a couple of cowboy boots stuffed with artificial flowers on his property fence line and soon neighbors and people driving by began to leave their boots for his artistic endeavor.
Florence Deeble - Lucas, Kansas - 1900-1999
Historic Florence Deeble Rock garden
Florence Deeble was a child watching with curiosity when S.P. Dinsmoor was constructing his Garden of Eden in Lucas. When she retired after a career as a high school English and history teacher, she began constructing her own grassroots environment of colored concrete scenes around her home. First prompted by her mother's insistence that she fill in a garden fish pond to prevent anyone drowning in it, Miss Deeble began to create concrete "postcards" of holiday sites she had enjoyed. Even after she was no longer able to do the cement work herself, she devoted herself to celebrating the early history of Lucas, balancing her earlier model of Mt. Rushmore with a work honoring four Lucas notables. Her rock garden is listed on the Kansas and National Registers of Historic Places.
Jim Dickerman - Beverly, Kansas
Folk Art - Metal, Feathers & Bones
For over 25 years Jim Dickerman has been combining scrap metal and parts from cars, trucks, tractors, bikes, and field equipment with skulls, bones, driftwood, antlers, feathers, and just about anything else to create his magical creatures. He sees himself as rather passive in this process, letting the pieces he finds decide what kind of creature they want to be. Since 2000, Jim, who lives in Lincoln County, has been creating his Open Range Zoo along Highway K-18. He asked friends and land owners if it would be okay to exhibit his metal/bone creations in their pastures, on top of billboards and in all sorts of unexpected places, creating a visual surprise around every bend along this two-lane road.
Samuel Perry Dinsmoor - Lucas, Kansas - 1843-1932
Garden of Eden
Starting in 1905 at the age of 62, Samual Perry Dinsmoor began creating his Garden of Eden in Lucas. After building a limestone log cabin and mausoleum with dove-tailed corners, he then spent the next few decades creating his concrete sculptural elements of religious figures and depictions of society at the time. His yard environment is one of the top 10 visionary art environments in the US.
Pull Tab Art
Herman Divers - Topeka, Kansas - 1923-2013
Those who saw the original KCPT "Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations" remember Topeka's Herman Divers and his astonishing pull-tab creations. The full-size motocycle was created out of 179,200 pull-tabs. The pull-tabs are those available on beverage cans in the 1970s. Each can tab had an extension on it that could be wrapped and bent to secure to the next tab. There is no glue or reinforcement iron in these silver artistic wonders of Divers' imagination. The Grassroots Art Center has on display a car, motorcycle, table, chair, lamp, umbrella, and clothing. When he ran out of pull tabs, he worked in buttons, artfully covering and creating objects such as vases, horses, motorcycles, and dolls.
Dolls - Mosiac Sculptures
LeAnne Doljac - Stillwell, Kansas
Schooled and trained as an engineer, LeAnne Doljac decided using her design skills to make art is where her heart is. LeAnne has created art from a junkyard car and pickup roofs and hoods. She is an avid mosaic artist and an intricate sculpture "The Splash" resides outside the front door at the Grassroots Art Center. Doljac creates sculptures out of assembled objects including dolls and antiques. She created "Monkey Bird Park" on her land in Stilwell, which displays mosaic dogs and other animals roaming in a natural area. Her art is developed out of an exploration of childhood and life experiences.
Dinosaur Environment
Robert Dorris - Erie, Kansas - 1925-2007
Ever want to roam the land at the time of dinosaurs? Inspired by the dinosaur displays at the Smithsonian Museum, Robert Dorris, a former builder of airplanes, created his "Detroit" dinosaur from car parts and scrap metal. It is 10-feet high and 16-feet long. He also made numerous smaller ones. The collection was donated to the city of Erie where a park is set up for viewing his creations.
Grogan Ebberts - Emporia, Kansas - 1930-2009
Metal Sculpture
Grogan Ebberts, who worked in the oil fields in southern Kansas, uses junk parts and scraps from recent oil drilling ventures to create his sculptures. His front and back yards are full. Ebberts said he didn't even care if he was successful or not, for he couldn't in good conscience do anything else. His 12-foot tall congomeration of discarded drill shafts and pipe are prominent in his work.
Yard Environment
Ed Engling - Natoma, Kansas - 1931-2017
Ed Engling's yard is a visual delight, from small pig heads made out of Model T oil pans with feet of cast iron bathtub legs, to an art car that is completely covered with license plates, horns, and other signage, which he drove in many area parades. His environment evolved over many years. He made his "Osborne County Choppers" from a combination of push lawn mowers and bicycles. He was an oil field worker for most of his life. Ever want to ride a motorcycle that is as big in scale as a full size car? It was possible at Engling's yard in Natoma.
Janet Erbe - Altoona, Kansas
German Folk Art
Janet Erbe always loved art class and admires folk artist Anne Childs. She began to teach herself old-time techniques in art such as German Fraktur lettering, hornbooks - wooden paddles with letters and numbers for children's learning - and ink drawings on leather book covers. Erbe's entire Altoona home is a walk back into a 19th-century environment. She paints old-time scenes on old materials such as ledger sheets from the late 1800s. She calls herself a "folk artist' and loves all things old and primitive. She also loves cloudy days.
Carlos Espinosa - Salina, Kansas
Scale Replicas in Miniature
Creativity resides in the soul of Carlos Espinosa. Even as a child in Mexico, he created miniature wooden houses and models on the family patio. The ideas for model vehicles float into his mind and then become reality. His work is highly detailed and to scale. He has always had an affinity for miniatures and space flight. Combine those two passions and he has created hundreds of accurately designed miniature space vehicles. This is a man who sees a semi trailer carrying something unusual and goes home to recreate it in miniature. His complex railroad scene is complete with a thunderstorm and burning house. He spent 500 hours creating the "Maverick Twinjet 1500," his roadworthy car/airplane from a wrecked Ford Fiesta and a recycled washing machine. He researched the wind farms between Wilson and Brookville and then created an entire scene of the turbines being hauled to site and installed.
Tom "Dr. Evermor"Every - Baraboo, Wisconsin - 1939-2020
Forevertron
Known worldwide for his imaginative scrap metal sculptures, Tom Every was a vital part of the art community in Sauk County, Wisconsin. Every was a former demolition contractor who spent decades collecting antique machinery. His mythical Forevertron ranged in size from a half-block by a half-block, and was invented by his mythical character, "Dr. Evermor." According to Every, Dr. Evermor is a Victorian inventor who designed the Forevertron to launch himself "into the heavens on a magnetic lightning force beam." The entire rural environment covered several acres. A musical bird band made of cast-off band and orchestra instruments was a highlight. The Queen of England was going to be invited to see him launched into space.
Vi Fick - Oakley, Kansas -
Fossils & Shells
Vi Fick, co-founder of the Fick Fossil & History Museum at Oakley, KS was a farm wife and an eccentric artist who used many mediums for her art. These included locally found fossils, fish bones, shells, sharks' teeth, oil paint, and crayon wax resulting in unique, three-dimensional artwork. Fick loved roaming the hills around their farm to gather working materials for her art projects. Unusual, intricate, detailed, colorful and varied subject matter best describes her art.
Janet Fish - Madison, Kansas
Dolls/Paintings
Janet Fish makes dolls from intuition. No patterns. "Every single doll I make is one of a kind. I couldn't reproduce most of them if I tried." She considers her creations to be a comedy of errors, intuitive visions, serendipitous opportunities to create. Ms. Fish is also a painter with her favorite character Raggedy Ann.
Maude Frakes - Elk Falls, Kansas - 1874-1954
Cement Yard Environment
Maude Frakes wanted to put Elk Falls on the map. A staunch republican, she had a collection of thousands of elephants and started making them of concrete in her yard. She constructed stone and concrete bridges, paths, pools, gazebos, lighthouses and a wishing well. During the depression, when local farmers and ranchers were looking for extra cash, Maude would hire them to construct rock and concrete sculptures around her never-ending garden. The property was bought in 2016 and is being retored after many decades of neglect.
Bottle Art
Bob Fredericks - Kirkwood, Missouri
Bob Fredricks grew up with his family mantra being, 'If you want something, you better know how to make it.' Fredericks lives close to St. Louis, MO. He learned to cut boards and hammer nails before he started school. Bob says, "The only art class I took was in Junior High, but I spent most of the time in the Principal's office and out in the hall." Fredericks soon found that carving was his passion. He now calls himself a Contemporary Whimsy Bottle Folk Artist. Bottles range in size from quart to 3 gallons with very detailed figures placed inside the bottles. Bob's topics for bottle whimsy ranges from Bill Clinton's office, to a spoof on Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper painting, to Hell and Heaven. He has also created many large outdoor concrete sculptures as part of his yard environment.
Spark Plug Art
Leo Frenzl - Odin, Kansas - 1924-2020
Leo Frenzl grew up near the Great Bend Air Base and observed the practice runs of the B29's during WWII. He was fascinated with planes, and started making toys and planes out of salvaged materials. His family dubbed the hundreds of planes the "Spark Plug Squadron" as they were the body and nose of each plane.
Jo Funk - Russell, Kansas - 1920-2004
Apple Box Art
Jo Funk loved beautiful things. Decked out in flowery clothes and turquoise jewelry, she could often be seen hanging out at the Dairy Queen or A&W in Russell. She painted and collected, filling her warehouse and soon-to-be re-sale shop, with treasures. Jo used only apple boxes, painting on only one end, often incorporating the original apple motiff in the design on the boxes. After her death individuals found hundreds of these artistic hidden box treasures in her warehouse storage. Each box was filled with used clothing stating size and type, such as "7-14 girls t-shirts." Imagine walking into a warehouse filled with her cardboard box art. She loved animals and became 'the cat lady." Her painted apple boxes have been displayed at the Deines Cultural Center, Russell, KS and the Grassroots Art Center.
