Irma Starr
Based in Kansas City, Irma Starr is a world-renowned potter who creates collectible works of art that are modeled after the 17th-century slipware style of pottery. This plate commemorates the Kansas City Public Library's 9th and Locust Street Location in correlation to Native American collections in Kansas City. The center of the plate features the Library's original building in sharp relief aligned with the perspective of the building. Below it is the dates of that location, 1897-1960.
Based in Kansas City, Irma Starr is a world-renowned potter who creates collectible works of art that are modeled after the 17th-century slipware style of pottery. This beautifully and meticulously rendered ceramic plate holds the Kansas City Central Library building as its focal point, thus placing further emphasis on the Library as the city's oldest cultural institution. On the outer lip of the plate are two images. To the left, a portrait of the Public Library's founder James M. Greenwood. To the right, Greenwood’s white marble memorial chair located at the Central Branch.
In designing Wizard of Oz Jar in earthenware clay, Starr combined traditional creative methods with whimsical popular culture. The large jar features the four main principal characters from the much loved L. Frank Baum book and film that chronicles the adventures of a young farm girl named Dorothy Gale in the magical Land of Oz after she and her pet dog Toto are swept away from their home in Kansas by a cyclone. In this work, Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion join the Wicked Witch on the legendary Yellow Brick Road.