Christopher Gulick at Artworks

Chris Gulick will be taking his kinetic sculptures to the “One of a Kind Show” in Chicago later this year. If you’d like to help him finance his adventure, make a stop at Artworks, and pick up a specially priced Gulick of your very own.

ArtWorks in Piccadilly Square – Central & Rock Road, 6-8 p.m.
http://www.artworksframes.com

Monika Meler at Steckline

Monika Meler uses printmaking techniques to create one-of-a-kind works, often applying layers of image on both sides of very thin paper. Her time as printmaking professor at Wichita State was short – she’s moved to California – so this may be your last chance to see her beautiful prints in Wichita.

Steckline Gallery, Newman University, 5-7 p.m.
http://www.newmanu.edu/stecklinegallery | http://www.monikameler.com

Sophisticated yet inviting. Elegant but functional. Signature Flight Support’s new digital efforts perfectly reflect the company – the world leader among fixed-base operators that nevertheless makes each visitor feel right at home. Drop your airstairs at any of Signature’s 102 locations and you’ll think they’ve been waiting just for you. And people are taking notice. Aviation International News’ annual survey recently identified Signature as one of the world’s best FBOs.

Exceptional Service

Visit the website, you’ll immediately find what you need – as though they knew you were coming. Moving aggressively to increase market share, Signature has been expanding its digital presence, while scoring a series of hits with fun, smartly aimed evites producing outstanding turnouts for promotional events at the NBAA International Operators Conference, EBACE and other targeted aviation functions. For those on the go, Signature’s dynamic new mobile site lets pilots quickly access everything from locations to up-to-the-minute news.

This year the Kansas State Fair and Greteman Group have raised the bar on crazy – again. Sheep Thrills and Raving Bull will soon charge a TV screen and billboard near you. It’s your deep-fried, cotton-candied, chain-sawed, goat-ropin’, big-buckled, mutton-chopped and mulleted masterpiece of Midwestern cultural experience – on a stick.

This year’s campaign builds upon our past quirky barnyard critters, reminding fairgoers to head to Hutch for outrageous, one-of-a-kind fun. Traditional channels – broadcast, print, outdoor – form a foundation for the fair’s increasingly effective social-media campaign. A blog, Twitter and Facebook target teens and young adults with regular updates, contests and requests for feedback. The International Association of Fairs and Expositions named the 2009 campaign best in its use of social media.

Beastly summer heat has me thinking about a tree. Africa’s baobab. It thrives in punishing temperatures and drought. And sustains both man and beast. It can live to be 1,000 years old with a mass of limbs 150 feet across.

It’s a strange giant with branches that look like roots reaching up to the sky. Bushmen legend tells how, in a frivolous mood, the gods tossed the baobab to the Earth below where it landed. Wrong side up. Bushmen still believe that the baobab doesn’t grow like other trees, but crashes to the ground fully grown.

Shelter in the Storm

The baobab plays a large role in the ecosystem of the African savannah. Birds make homes in its hollows. Bush babies and fruit bats drink nectar from its large, white flowers. Baboons feast on its protein-rich fruit. Giraffes nibble its leaves.

Man uses it, too. Its fibrous bark makes string, rope, baskets, paper, cloth and netting. Its foot-long fruit creates a refreshing drink. Leaves can be boiled and eaten and glue made from the pollen. Various parts of the tree are used to reduce malaria fever and a host of other ailments. Its 30-foot-wide trunk has been used for everything from bus stops to storage barns. Whole villages can revolve around a particular tree.

Made in the Shade

Superstition surrounds the tree. It develops a hollow trunk said to be inhabited by spirits who haunt anyone foolish enough to cut it down. It’s revered as a repository for ancestral souls and the community’s spiritual power. Some believe that if you pick a flower from a baobab, you will be eaten by a lion; but if you drink water in which a Baobab’s seeds have been soaked, you’ll be safe from a crocodile attack.

Baobabs are hard to kill. They can be burnt and stripped of bark but quickly regenerate. When they do die, they rot from the inside and suddenly collapse with great noise, leaving behind only a heap of fiber. Many believe that they don’t die at all, but simply disappear as mysteriously as they arrive. Maybe the heat’s finally getting to me. But I want to live in the shade of the baobab.