Great Bend and Sylvia are the destinations on July 24 to tour Bob Mix’s whimsical machines and creatures at his home in Great Bend and his animal sculptures at the local zoo. A short drive away in Reno County’s rural Sylvia, property owner Michael Murphy will open Don Brownlee’s 1912 farmhouse with decorated interior surrounded by a stone and metal sculpture garden. 

Lunch at Prairie Oaks Inn on the property is included. Fee for the tour and lunch is $30 per person.

Mix will lead the tour of his art in Great Bend. He uses skills developed as a metal fabricator to create whimsical machines and creatures. The zoo pieces are more true-to-life, including an accurate representation of a hesperornis fossil with a spine made from a drilling rig gear chain. Mix has been making art since 1983. He says if he understands the structure, “You see what you want to do and you just keep building it.”

Brownlee farmed near Sylvia, but his artistic passion resulted in his work as a woodcarver, sculptor, musician, inventor, builder, and fiber artist. An 8-foot Greco-Roman limestone cowboy and other sculptures welcome visitors to the yard of his 1912 farmhouse. Inside, you will tour a home unlike anything in the world, including more than 500 organ pipes painted and installed on walls and ceiling. Murphy, proprietor of an inn on the property, will lead the tour.  

This field trip is offered in conjunction with the Grassroots Art Center’s 25th exhibition Flying Free: 25 Years of Grassroots Art, on display through Oct. 31 at 213 S. Main in Lucas. Grassroots Art Center founding director Rosslyn Schultz will introduce each artist and site. All tours begin at 10 a.m. Carpooling is available and details for each trip will be sent to those who register. To sign up for the tour, click “Shop” at www.grassrootsart.net or call the art center at 785-525-6118.