If you walk through the NOTO Arts and Entertainment District along North Kansas Avenue, you may notice that the banner is decorated with flags along the street. There are banners welcoming visitors to the area, and some show artworks created by local artists.
But the eight new banners placed in January are the only ones in the area and may be different from any banners people have seen before.
The slogan is made of aluminum objects donated by the community. Visitors to the area will be able to identify cake pans, pipes and mechanical parts in the slogan.
The sculpture banner was created by two Topeka artists, Michael Bradley and Larry Peters, who have long been engaged in ceramics and mixed media. Bradley rents studio space in Studio 831, and Peters, who married Barbara Waterman-Peters, occasionally uses the space To show his work.
Bradley and Peters recently sat down with The Topeka Capital-Journal to discuss their artistic careers and how to make sculpture banners.
Peters: I didn’t study any art all the way in high school. When I became an undergraduate at the University of Washington, I started to learn some art. I am not excited about painting. When I was exposed to jewelry and ceramics, I found that I prefer to work with my own hands rather than holding a paintbrush. So, I got a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Washington, and then went to southern Illinois to get a master’s degree in art and ceramics. While there, I did more metalwork-jewellery works. I started working as a librarian in the Fine Arts Department of Topeka and Shawnee County Public Libraries in 1965. After staying there for seven years, I took charge of the library’s gallery, expanded it and worked with the collection. In addition, I am in charge of all exhibitions and book artwork. I have retired from the Sabatini Gallery in the library for 17 years and two months. I have always been doing 2D media collage and mixed media work in my home studio. When I was a gallery director, I worked in the studio at night, weekends and even holidays.
Bradley: At first I was an engineer, and then my calculus teacher said that if I didn’t take another advanced math class, he would pass me, which eliminated this situation. I have a degree in economics, voice communication and interpersonal relations. I was involved in the student government of KU and the president of McCollum Hall. When they were preparing for the art dormitory Hashinger Hall, I ended up working in the housing office. I decided to move next year, start to dabble and enter the ceramics studio, and then everything is over. I went to graduate school to get a teaching certificate. I have been teaching in Australia for several years. I came back from there, went back to school, and got a ceramic BFA from KU. I worked there as an undergraduate assistant in a ceramics studio, then worked as a full-time artist-in-residence at the Lawrence Arts Center, and then became the first full-time director of education there. I used to work at Kaw Valley Art in KCK, but during this period, I decided to work at YWCA, which supported the AIDS project in Kansas City, Kansas. I have worked in the AIDS service department for several years. During that time, I got a master’s degree in social work, became a clinical social worker, and worked at The Villages for 17 or 18 years. I only retired seven years ago, and now I have come to NOTO and started to participate. Before retiring, I have become a member of NOTO’s board of directors.
Bradley: This is a committee that got together to discuss what we want to do. I am a participant of the committee, but it is the business owner of the area and the artist of the area. It all starts with what we want to do, how we want to represent a truly unique area of Topeka on the flagpole. That is really where the idea started. This is indeed a community project. First, the idea of the banner is to do something creative, not just a bunch of sunflowers. Therefore, there are place name slogans with NOTO slogans on them. The artist slogans are all the artist’s personal design. The spring student banner is personalized design. These are just another type of artwork, which makes the area unique. I don’t think we have seen anything similar. I never think back to seeing the banners of constructed and found objects anywhere.
Peters: That is an art project, first place. Second place, I had no pressure at that time to let me participate in the exhibition. I thought,’Well, I can give up my studio job and come and play with others.
Bradley: I am very interested in Larry’s participation, because he is ranked number one and is a very good collaborator. In the past, we have cooperated on other projects. Similarly, based on his two-dimensional collage works, this is a natural extension. It is more or less two-dimensional, but when we want to pursue aesthetics, it has a very good sense of design.
Peters: I think maybe I thought of some design subconsciously, because it looks like it is set against the sky, not just stuffed.
Bradley: I use the old screen-printed frame as the external frame. I have a bunch of leftovers. Then we started collecting aluminum, mainly from the community. I called FB and said if you have interesting aluminum, please bring it to me, no matter what we can use in this project. We ended all kinds of things.
Bradley: Each of us has some jobs that we want to do, and then we collaborated on most of them. It is more of a design project, based on the materials provided by the community, let us see the final result. We will arrange things, move around and play with it.