Learn about The Kansas City Fundraiser, where regional artists transform old instruments into beautiful reclaimed works of art for a good cause.
Julie Denesha
Hallmark senior artist Matt Kesler places handlebars atop a pair of French horns, in preparation for the final stage of a piece he calls “The French Peddler.” The work goes up for auction July 12 at the Art That Blows fundraiser.
Got an old instrument collecting dust in your basement? One Kansas City fundraiser enlists regional artists to turn them into reclaimed works of art.
Karen Oatman has spent the past couple months taking apart musical instruments to create charming assemblages. She’s sawed off the necks of eight violins, destroyed a clarinet and pulled apart a saxophone.
“I had to originally take off the back of the violin to be able to attach all of the arms and his face,” she said, from a crowded work table at Hallmark’s Corporate Headquarters near Crown Center. “I’m taking the clamps off so he can make his body a whole person again.”
The senior visual designer dubbed him “Mr. Fiddle Dee Dee.”
“He’s got little clarinets for eyes, he’s got parts of a saxophone for his eyeballs, he’s got eight arms, which are all of the handles of the violin,” Oatman said. “I can’t say that it plays a beautiful violin sound any more but — boy! — does he look snazzy.”
Karen Oatman’s “Mr. Fiddle Dee Dee,” in progress, rests on a work surface at at Hallmark’s Corporate Headquarters.
Oatman created this fiddly sculpture for Art that Blows, an annual auction that raises money to help make music more accessible to kids.
It was created by Mike Meyer, co-owner of Meyer Music, who partnered with FOX 4 TV to found Band of Angels, which takes in donated instruments and gives them to students who otherwise can’t afford them.
In 14 years, the nonprofit has supplied more than 3,700 instruments, and provided full camp scholarships to more than 600 students.
“We haven’t even seen the best of this,” Meyer said. “We may have created somebody to be a music teacher because they got an instrument, and then they start teaching other kids. So it’s like this cycle and that’s super exciting.”
But not every instrument they get is in good shape.
“What I wasn’t counting on when we started Band of Angels was the amount of equipment that I was going to get that really was beyond its useful life,” Meyer said.
Karen Oatman, left, gets a few pointers from Meyer Music co-owner Mike Meyer as she learns how to disassemble an instrument. Meyer co-founded the charity Band of Angels 14 years ago.
Though the instruments may never make music again, they can still become material for art. And Meyer tries to respect the personal stories that come with every donated instrument.
“There are a lot of things in your home that have memories. Rarely are those memories as strong as when there’s a music instrument,” Meyer said.
“They can remember their parent playing it, they can remember being in the concert, they can remember learning it. So when they’re giving that over to us, it’s almost like somebody handing you their baby,” he said. “You’ve got to be thoughtful with it.”
Andrew Levy, Band of Angels director of Programs and Community Engagement, said the nonprofit also helps gets violins, saxophones, cellos and more back into circulation again.
“The instruments sit under beds, they sit in closets, they sit in garages and they collect dust,” Levy said. “Finally someone hears about the good work we do and the light bulb goes off: ‘That’s what I need to do with that instrument!’”
This year Band of Angels will auction off the work of 40 artists from around Kansas City.
Jeff Johnson created whimsical birds from brass instruments in his Nelson, Missouri, art studio. Carole Blankowski used parts of wind instruments to make clever whirligigs and wind spinners. And Hallmark senior artist Matt Kesler found inspiration for a brassy sculpture from his adventures on two wheels.
“I’m a cyclist. I love to bike, and so I’m creating this piece from two French horns,” he said. “It’s hard to believe a French horn can be wheels, but as it comes to life, the horn kind of suddenly disappears and you see a bicycle.”
Kesler took parts from a cello to complete the bike. Tuning pegs are now pedals, and the tailpiece that attaches the strings to the base of the violin is a seat.
“Bicycles are freeing,” Kesler said. “There’s a lot of joy I think in movement, getting yourself from one place to another. And I think there’s a lot of similarities when you think about what music does for you.”
The deeper message for Kesler is what his French horn-turned-bicycle will do at auction.
“I’m super excited because I feel like this piece that I’m creating is going to be really a stellar piece,” he said. “And what that means ultimately then (is) that it’s going to sell well.”
“It’s going to provide opportunities for some wonderful kids. Now they can get an instrument that will change their lives,” Kesler said.
The Art That Blows auction was from 5:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. on Friday,July 12, at The Abbott Kansas City, 1901 Cherry St., Kansas City, Missouri 64108. For more information, go to BandofAngels.org.
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