Bookmarkable
Now at Leawood: Michael Schmaltz
After a diagnosis of severe post-traumatic stress disorder in 2011, Michael Schmaltz underwent several therapy sessions involving art. In 2012 he decided to buy oil paint and canvasses and started a series of self-portraits. He paints portraits of women because they can show emotion without judgment. This collection, entitled the Thousand Yard Stare, depicts the eyes of a person after the horror of war.
Spring Preview
Baby, it's cold outside. But SPRING is coming!!! And, the Library has programs that will not only warm your soul, but defrost your brain as well.
In this episode of Did you hear?, our hosts Dave Carson and Melissa Horak-Hern chat with Christopher Leitch, Ben Oglesby, and Amy Field, about what’s to come in the next few months at the Library! Spoiler alert: it's hot stuff!
elementia Call for Submissions
Calling teen creators: elementia is a literary arts magazine published to represent and uplift young adults. We accept original poetry, fiction, nonfiction, graphic stories, photography and illustrations.
Everything and all of us are connected on every conceivable scale, from the subtle subatomic bonds in the smallest building blocks of matter to the massive interconnected root system of the 80,000 year old Pando aspen grove.
In our hectic modern world people build bridges, knock down walls and create networks to fight isolation and forge strong connections around the globe. Ideas and inspiration spread across the boundaries of location, medium, class and culture: mind maps on cosmic scale. We are each a collection of connections, our root systems shaped by influences of our families, friends, collaborators and heroes. Our links and bonds each tell a story about who we are and where we’ve been.
Whether you answer by pulling back to see this web from afar, or by closely tracing each filament to its root, our question for this elementia is: what connects you?
Submit your original poetry, short stories, essays, comics, or artwork through February 1, 2020.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! Over this past year our Did you hear? podcast gained over 100 subscribers and our 32 episodes have been downloaded over 5,000 times! Thank You!!!
Have a look back—err—listen back, to the best reader's advisory episodes of 2019. So many of our Librarians dropped by this past year to share gems within genres. We hope their recommendations made your year richer!
2019 Books that Caught Our Attention
50 titles divided into 10 categories, all published in 2019, chosen by Library staff as excellent representations of the genre or of community interest.
Our readers advisory librarian Gregg Winsor makes another Did You Hear? appearance to discuss Notable Books! Gregg, Dave and Melissa reveal this list of great books from 2019. Biography/Memoir, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, History, Literary Fiction, Mystery/Thriller, Romance, Science Fiction, Sciences—it's all on the 2019 Notable Books list!
At Blue Valley: Steph Kates
Steph Kates began her art career as a painter, creating otherworldly landscapes exploring mythology, fairytales and fables. When she transitioned from painting to ceramics, she combined her years of experience with image-making, illustration and pattern work to the practice of pottery. Kates creates her surface designs using a process called sgraffito: before the clay fully dries, she paints on layers of underglaze, then hand carves her unique designs. She fires the clay, applies glaze and fires again. Each piece is unique and one-of-a-kind.
Steph Kates received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and works from her home studio in Kansas City.