Commun ty Matters Manor of the Plains
A of
October 2015
LOVE
MUSIC.
Manor of the Plains residents have heard John Westmacott sitting in on snare drum when the Ford County Band plays here every month. In fact, John, who is the Manor of the Plains’ accountant, has a long career in music that took him from the clubs of Kansas City to the stages of New York. In high school, John was a charter member of the Salina Silver Sabres Drum and Bugle Corps. He was performing with swing bands around the region as a teenager, joining the Salina musicians’ union at age 16. And yet John wanted music to remain a hobby, not a career. “I didn’t want to major in music because I was not interested in teaching,” he said. John took a job in 1975 with the Social Security Administration in Kansas City. Soon he was plugged into the city’s jazz and swing scene, performing at country clubs, hotels and weddings. Eventually he had his own trio, The Kansas City Sound. He also played gigs sponsored by the Music Performance Trust Fund, which brought live music to places such as nursing homes or veteran’s hospitals. DRUMMER, continued on page 2
“Whoa! There They Go” by Richard Long.
Art is Ageless®
Local artist to be featured in 2016 calendar Not many people could take a bundle of copper wire and pistachio shells and turn them into a work of art. Richard Long of Dodge City has been building crowd-pleasing scenes out of these household materials for more than three years. It all started when he was eating some pistachios and realized the two rounded halves of the shell looked like insect wings. “I started making butterflies on sticks, to go in plants,” Richard said. “I made angels and little white doves, little bees. That went pretty good, so I started selling them at craft shows.” Richard’s mixed-media sculpture, “Whoa!! There They Go!” has been named a winner in this year’s system-wide Art is Ageless competition. Winners were chosen from the top local entries at all 18 Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America communities. Richard’s piece will be featured in the 2016 Art is Ageless calendar, along with the works of more than 50 artists age 65 and older throughout Kansas and Missouri. The sculpture depicts three pheasant eluding a hunter on the side of the road. The birds, made of painted pistachio shells and real pheasant feathers, bob on lengths of welding wire. Richard also tucked a dog, a raccoon, a rabbit and other birds into the scene among bushes made of wire. ART, continued on page 2