The West Bottoms is an industrial district in Kansas City, MO, just west of the downtown area. It is beat-up and somewhat neglected, filled with weeds, warehouses and a shitload of trains running around here and there. And although it’s currently undergoing a sort of “hipster gentrification”, it can still have an eerie vibe after dark. I love the place.
My friend Jeff who taught me to fly airplanes was an airline pilot, as was his father before him. Jeff’s dad flew Lockheed Constellations for TWA. Back then, the avionics and navigation systems weren’t near as sophisticated as they are today. When his dad would fly into Kansas City Municipal Airport (as it was called then) in nasty weather he would have to make his decision to land based on being able to see certain landmarks. One of those landmarks was the Rudy-Patrick Seed Company Building located in the West Bottoms. If he could see the building, he would radio the tower and tell them, ”I got Rudy-Pat!”, which meant he could ultimately see the runway and was cleared to land. I always thought that was a neat story, so I appropriated the building and the Constellation and put them in this painting.
