KANSAS CITY, MO.- Charlotte Street premieres Crossroads Artboards this summer by artists Kati Toivanen and Clay Yoga Sculpt (Casey Whittier/Andrew Castañeda/Erin Conyers), currently installed at 125 Southwest Boulevard.The Artboards program captures the creative spirit of the Crossroads neighborhood and serving as an alternative outdoor platform where artists’ work can be viewed during all hours of the day. The current work will remain on view through the end of September 2025.

This round of Artboards features deeply personal and collaborative works that explore themes of healing, transformation, and the intersection of practice and memory. Katie Toivanen’s Chimera delves into her experience as a bone marrow transplant recipient, living with the complex reality of a body that now houses blood and immune cells from a male donor, while the rest of her cells remain her own. Through organic imagery that evokes blood, tissue, and cellular matter, Toivanen reflects on the ongoing process of healing, balancing both her personal and medical narratives.

Meanwhile, Clay Yoga Sculpt (Casey Whittier, Andrew Castañeda, and Erin Conyers) present a collaborative body of work that links the physical practices of yoga, ceramics, and skateboarding. Their documentary-style images capture the intersection of these disciplines, emphasizing how hours of practice manifest in fleeting moments of action. The artists use yoga as a grounding force, which not only enhances their physical work but also shapes their perspectives on impermanence and transformation. Their approach to ceramics and skateboarding celebrates the beauty of process and the evidence left behind as a record of time.

Kati Toivanen on her Artboards:

A person with two different sets of DNA is called a chimera and I am one of them. In the summer of 2022, I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia and in 2023 I received a bone marrow transplant from an anonymous donor to heal my blood. My donor is a healthy young man, so my blood and immune cells are now male, but the rest of my cells remain female. My cancer is in remission, but my body remains a battleground between the donated and my own cells. This comingling manifests in symptoms of graft-versus-host disease. In this series of images I manipulate and explore elements that resemble blood, cells, tissue, and other organic matter as I imagine and visualize the ongoing process of healing and growth in my body.

Clay Yoga Sculpt on their Artboards:

A photograph captures action – one frozen moment – only possible due to countless hours of practice. Captured action documents a subject’s sensitive material understanding: just as a skateboarder is attuned to the potential of a corner in the urban landscape, a ceramic artist understands the potential transformation of a heap of clay. The act may leave evidence at the spot. Hundreds of scratches might surface a rail, evidencing the practice and attempts leading up to one victorious moment frozen in a photo. These images reflect the documentary style common in skateboarding. These images were made in Kansas City by artists who met here and have maintained connections through their ceramics and movement practices. The spaces were collaboratively constructed and work began with a group yoga session. Yoga can prepare the body for opportunities which require strength, presence, agility, and longevity. For Andrew, yoga enhances not only his physical ceramic and photographic practices, but also his skateboarding. For Casey, it is part of a larger desire to live with flexibility as a core value- literally and figuratively. For Erin, it is the thread that connects her to the ever changing and temporary nature of all things, reminding her how to appreciate each moment with more gratitude and awareness. In Erin Conyers: Yoga and Casey Whittier: Yoga, Erin and Casey practice yoga atop mounds of malleable clay. The floor surface’s resistance is no longer fixed. Erin and Casey react to the thixotropic material grounding their yoga practice. But, this also becomes ceramic practice: this approach to sculpting clay allows new perspectives, unburdened by pottery-centric conventions that are part of our training and education. Here, the evidence of Erin and Casey’s practices are fired as a record, compiling time into a solid object. Clay becomes the spot, the obstacle, the record.