The Folly's Fading Light
An original oil painting, on stretched canvas
30 X 24", unframed
( click on image to enlarge )
When people reach my age, they tend to spend some time reflecting back on the
choices they have made in life, and sometimes questioning what it has all been about.
For artists the question becomes whether or not it has been worth the struggle to have
a career in the fine arts. Most young people who choose to become artists, are not
blind to the fact that art is not usually the pathway to great financial reward, so there
must be something else which is the compelling need to be satisfied, by making that
choice, and continuing the pursuit. Perhaps that motivation could be described as the
ongoing quest to achieve the expression of a personal vision or visions, in a some
presentable and concrete form.
The same questions might be asked about the subjects some artists choose to paint.
For example, this scene of a gloomy, rainy evening, showing a once grand old, theater
building, which sank into an advanced state of crumbling decay and abandonment, is not
likely to be the kind of subject matter which most people would appreciate as art for
their homes. So again, that subject is a choice of the artist, with no expectation of an
immediate monetary gain, but still to satisfy some other personal interest or experimental
exploration of the theme or the techniques used to achieve the desired results.
I hadn't thought about this particular work for years, but I was reminded of it by a
recent, gallery request to show paintings of Kansas City history. It must have been
over four decades ago that I did a number of sketches and drawings of this old theater
building, because demolition seemed inevitable at that time. Later on, those sketches
proved useful in doing paintings such as this, of a forgotten time in this city. Before the
mid-twentieth century, Kansas City was a major hub of railway passenger traffic, and a
primary stop on the theatrical circuit. The touring performers, actors and vaudevillians
all strode the stages of our grand old theaters. When I was a child, every block in the
commercial heart of the city had at least one and sometimes two, theaters or extravagant
movie palaces, along with the numerous, elaborate department stores which dotted the
central business district. And, all of that activity was served by an efficient, streetcar,
rail system. But all of that was about to change, as the American way of life was
undergoing a revolution.
After World War Two, automobiles and rapid suburban expansion, with convenient
outlying shopping centers, along with the advent of television, combined to drain all of
the life blood from the heart of the city. The economical and efficient transit system was
killed off by General Motors; the department stores shriveled and then closed, and the
theaters were boarded up and abandoned. That led the way to something they called
"urban renewal", during which dozens of beautiful, historic buildings were demolished
to make way for things as hideously uninspiring as parking structures, and thus further
reducing human presence on the streets of the central city.
But history does not always have a completely unhappy ending. Fortunately for the
theater in this painting, it was saved from demolition, and beautifully restored, largely
through the efforts of one woman, who was determined to save at least one of the city's
historic theaters from the wrecking ball. When this building first opened, in the year 1900,
it was called The Century Theater, and then over the following decades the name
changed to fit the theatrical circuit's use, such as when it was known as the Schubert
Theater. The Folly was the name that was in use when the theater was finally closed,
before the restoration, so that was the name that stuck. But the efforts which went
into preserving that wonderful old gem were a very worthy quest, and certainly not folly.
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