We drive into Lawrence, KS. Replacements on the jukebox and 4 guys drinking fish bowl size bloody mary's on a Monday afternoon. We're coming to Cincinnati, my college town. I make calls to old friends - some are missing but I get a hold of Beth. The guys in the bar are funny. I show them the photographs and they like it.

Kansas City, KansasDriving on to Kansas City. Kansas City, Kansas has an old style 1950's 60's feel to the commercial areas. There are suburban houses, neighborhoods, lawns. I like the feel of this city. Although there is no coffee shop type of place for us to find our models. We do find a couple of interesting locations. We drive over one of the bridges into a warehouse and brick area. Train tracks and big warehouse spaces. This is a great studio location.


Dirt
We pull up to a gallery and run up to put some cards in the box. The car that is parked outside is actually the owners of the gallery and they live upstairs. They invite us up and what a great space! Huge gallery downstairs and even bigger living space with bedrooms and studios upstairs. About 5 guys live here. They have their artwork around and they invite us to stay overnight if we want. I'd like to sit on that couch and paint for a couple hours, so we decide to stay.

Our hosts are very open, friendly, and discuss interesting topics-- art, politics, parties. Their artwork is quite great also. I get a lot of painting done as I eavesdrop on the conversations going on around me. Later S.T. and I crawl into Davin's low, flat futon and pile on blankets because they haven't turned on the heat yet. About 4 people said they would pose the night before, but it is freezing in the morning and as it turns out, only Davin, the owner of the bed we are sleeping in is ready and willing to strip for us today. He makes up some excuse to skip out of work for an hour or so.

We shoot under a raised highway - our model holding a giant gourd. He did us a huge favor, but we are in Missouri!!! Kansas City is a city split in 2 - one side in Kansas, one side in Missouri. I guess we're staying another night. We are off to look for more models. We head to an area recommended by the bloody mary guys back in Lawrence. We do find a model, an afternoon model, in fact. Now we sit at the Mongolian grill after eating a huge plate of grilled vegetables. We are meeting the model at 3:00. She is very pretty and looks a little or a lot like Julia Roberts, but I wouldn't tell her that. We find our bridge location after driving around a while.


The bridge has a grated surface that you can look down through and see the brown water moving below. Our model, Lisa, is wrapped up in our white blanket and steps barefoot out of the van. One blue car with an odd couple in it drives by twice. Otherwise nobody saw us and we drive off.

The 2nd location is under a SAFE sign. The middle of the day - cars and people all around - Lisa walks over and drops the cloth covering her body. Some men are standing near by outside their businesses. They look shocked and quite happy. She was very calm and brave. They gave her a round of applause afterwards. We finally have our Kansas shot.