![]() Ruth Stockdale Park: George Raines Road & Highway 210, Liberty.Nelson-Atkins Museum Lawn: 4525 Oak, Kansas City.Lowenstein Park: 1901 NW Lowenstein Dr., Lee's Summit.Loose Park: 51st Terrace & Wornall, Kansas City.Longview Lake Park Shelter #11: 470 & Raytown Road, Kansas City.Legacy Park: 1201-1501 NE Legacy Park Dr., Lee's Summit.Fleming Park: 228067 Woods Chapel Rd., Blues Springs.Canterbury Park: 501 SE Blackwell Rd., Lee's Summit.Brookside Park: 58th Street between Grand & Oak, Kansas City.Belton Community Center Park: 16400 South Mullen Rd., Belton.Arborwalk Park: 1301 SW Arbor Park Dr., Lee's Summit.Go Fly a Kite:Ĭhoose your favorite park with wide-open spaces, watch for power lines and go fly kites! These are a few of our favorite places to fly a kite in the area: If you love the beauty and creativity of a kite, you’ll enjoy this collection of places, events and ways to celebrate kite flying as a family. Our family loves flying kites together while we enjoy spring picnics at local parks. Someone said that the centipede photograph provided a sole but sufficient reason for a serious kiter to place the book in his or her library.Kite flying is at once fun, whimsical, nostalgic and magical. One of 'his centipedes appeared (without credit to Wong) on the jacket of the book Better Kite Flying for Boys and Girls, published in 1980. As he says, “I’m centipede happy.” He builds his centipedes in sections of 10 with clips to ease the separation of tangled portions. ![]() Now he has five centipedes, including two precious miniatures. He also devised a three-line holder that gives him more precise flying control. Again, the first effort didn’t balance properly and Tyrus found that the right choice of line was essential. Bill Everett had one and Tyrus had to try making his own. But the pleasures derived from the branching technique, for him, outweigh the risks. “Then I pour myself a stiff drink,” Tyrus laughs. Thus the kites are uniform structures but their flying patterns are “free” - free to fly in different directions, to interplay in lifelike motion and even to dash to earth - where Tyrus simply picks them up and sets them flying again. ![]() Tyrus flies his kites on about 1000 feet of line - and here is the essence of his art - with all the kites branching off the main line. “Then I made 25 white doves for flying against a solid blue sky. “Up to five! All on one string! Then before I knew it I had 25 ! ” Tyrus exclaims, laughing at himself. It didn’t fly properly so Tyrus rebuilt it and then made another one - and another. A neighbor’s bamboo was handy and he used it to make his first kite, a swallow - the Chinese omen of happiness. Wong has been involved in kites for about six years, since he made a large multicolor banner for kiteflier Dick Ames (of Flying Tiger kite reels) to use as a signal at the beach. The spot is animated by some of the most brilliant kites made in America - and by a wiry artist of 73 years who bounces around with the enthusiasm of a teenager. Nestled there among the eucalyptus trees is the home and kite studio of Tyrus Wong. North of the smog lanes of Los Angeles lies a canyon where the air seems fresh. In his hands is an elliptical kite in rainbow colors, in the foreground a pair of fish line climbers, in the background one of his angel kites along with centipedes and parts of centipedes. Cover: Tyrus Wong smiles in his studio at Sunland, California, where he is surrounded by kites, materials and mementos of his life as a designer with Disney Studios.
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