Here I’m in front of one of the most popular monuments of Wichita.
The Keeper of the Plains, a 44-foot steel sculpture erected in 1974 at the confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers.
It depicts a Native American warrior offering a blessing to the sky.
What intrigued me was to find out that the sculptor of this impressive statue was called Blackbear Bosin.
Maybe a distant relative of mine, who knows?
We are a family of artists, after all.
Blackbear Bosin was born June 5, 1921 in Anadarko, Oklahoma, served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He moved to Wichita, Kansas in 1940 where he began his career as a color seperator and plate maker for Western Lithograph and as an artist for Boeing.
He died on August 9, 1980.
What a pity I could not meet him personally!