Gina, this is really a lovely piece. You captured Mott-ly so well. When I first met him he was the lead singer of local legendary band Mudhead. We all took great pleasure in Mott's crazed stage antics including pulling his prosthesis off and swinging it wildly above his head. He could be found at plenty of punk, hardcore, really any kind of music shows and was a huge supporter/promoter of the local music scene. His musical tastes were probably the broadest I've ever witnessed and he was certainly one of my all time favorite customers at Recycled Sounds for the simple reason that we never knew what to expect and he was always open to new sounds. His radio show on KKFI "SUSAN" in the early 90s was a virtual playland of great music. Nick Cave and Slint to KD Lang and NICO... His dry humor flowed...
Yep, Mott was a visionary artist taking Joseph Cornell's shadow boxes to the next level.
His name and his characteristic tattoos (I can't remember which tattoo he got in 1988 when we went to Grimm's to get mine) and piercings may have seemed dark or even macabre to some, but anyone who knew him knew he was truly a sweet sweet person. Sure he had a dark side(complicated and intense), but his unrelenting pursuit of life was inspiring.

Thanks for recognizing Mott and his greatness. Mott recently did the same by hosting a tribute to Vince Roark after Vince passed. A couple of years ago when I was going through hard times I would go to see Mott and he would give me really tender-hearted and good advice. I tried to get my kids around Mott often because I wanted them to know him as well.
I first met Mott in around 1983(he was the coolest looking punk around) but we didn't become friends until 1987 when I was doing a history of the KC punk scene. Mott did an interview and donated his vast collection of fanzines and ephemera to the Western Historical Manuscripts Collection at UMKC. The collection is available for public research and can be found as the Patrick Sumner and Mott-ly Kansas City and Lawrence Underground Zine Collection (1239 kc).
Mott was one of the best friends I've ever had and his heart was so huge. Like Anne said Mott had his complicated side but almost always in these last few years I was greeted by Mott with his beautiful smile. It is really hard to work today as I am overwhelmed. Mott I'll miss you always.
Patrick

i didn't know mott-ly nearly as long as my friends patrick and anne, but am glad i knew him the few years i did. he had a huge heart and did so much for the local music scene and artists. one of the photos above (with his back to us) was taken the night of my daughter's (annie) art opening. he was very supportive of her and had talked to me about doing another show of her work anytime she was ready.

tonight, jodi (Pi Gallery) will have a wheel chair on the patio to be decorated as a memorial to mott. also, there will be a new orleans style funeral procession with the dirty force (don't know if this is finalized) on friday the 8th starting at YJ's and heading east thru the crossroads ending at the late show.

see the link below for more info and tributes to mott-ly.

http://chuck.mahost.org/weblog/?p=1504

thanks gina for a lovely tribute to a lovely man.

I have so many great memories of Mott. The first time I saw Mott was the very first day of classes at KCAI in 1986. He was there greeting new students with a smile and was handing out tiny little xeroxed fliers full of tiny art and even tinier words. I remember thinking his clothing and appearance somehow seemed in conflict with his warm and friendly welcome. My friends Archer and Barry ended up playing in Mudhead with Mott so we saw them play a lot... sometimes my friend John and I would follow them to a shows in other cities... Each show totally different from the last.... always as cathartic as they were fun. I remember sitting on the front porch of that great old house on Warwick during an end-of-the-school-year communal porch sale chatting with Mott and other folks and watching my parked car get totaled right in front of our eyes. I remember often siting in my room on McGee Street listening to "Charlie's Golden Ticket" as it came up thru the vents from their practice in our basement.... I remember many times seeing Mott dancing at shows and in a over-joyful burst, throwing his prosthetic leg up on to the stage at a band he was enjoying as if it was a rose or pair of panties. I did not know a lot of details on Mott's health and condition over the years... not as much as I know now. I never ever remember hearing him complain about it or see it get the best of him. His strength and his standing up to his everyday challenges must have been purely internal.... he never seemed to let it show how much work it was most surely taking. He will be missed by many many people as he touched many people with his kindness and friendship.

Gina,

Thanks for a well-written tribute that shares details of Mott-ly's life and recognizes the impact it had on many people.l He made a small place seem much bigger by his presence.

Hi Gina,

I cant remember when I first met Mott I beleive it was 84 I wandered into the print making department at KCAI and I saw Mott and Archer working in there together and loved what they were both doing. I became quick freinds with Mott we shared music, movies, art, politics, urban decay, mushrooms, many laughs(obscure humor) etc. I always had fun and enjoyed every minute of his company. When I moved away I always made sure to visit him and kept up on what he was doing. Like few other people I have met in this world and I have met many few have continued to "STUN ME" the way Mott did. In the past couple years I have attended more than my share of freinds funerals who I had spent more recent time with but his "SPIRIT" touched me the most.He was dignified,unflappable, courageous, brilliant, dynamic, important, spectacular, untiring, truly caring and Im not even mentioning him as an artist. He was one of the best human beings I have ever met. I was trying desprately to get back to KC and have a show at his gallery and he was anxious for me to do so, more than anything to spend time with him but also to show respect to someone who I considered to be the most important artist in KC. I never got to have that show and will ALWAYS regret it, I wanted to be at the memorial coming up but will not be able and wanted to share my thoughts about him. I apreciate the beutiful words you have said about him. Drink a toast to him and celebrate his life!

Bob Moon

Words escape me as I try to compose something even remotely resembling a tribute to a very dear friend of mine (of over 20 years) that I shared so much with throughout those years. Mott-ly has had an effect on my life in so many different ways. Ways that still reveal themselves to me to this day. When I first met him in the mid-80's I had just moved to KC from the small-minded town that I grew up in and he was one of the key people that showed me that life could be so much more expansive than I had previously suspected. In those days I considered him a mentor of the highest degree. He astounded me on a daily basis with his no-nonsense attitude towards life and how every tiny little aspect of it could be filled with beauty and wonder, in spite of the pain that he experienced constantly as a result of his physical maladies. He later would show me his warmth kindness by putting me up at his place more than a few times and for longer than he initially counted on. He always had an attentive ear and was willing to listen to anyone's point of view. His humor could be charmingly self-effacing but could also possess a razor sharp edge. I think few people, myself included, can understand how much he had to deal with by just getting up in the morning and facing the day. God, all these cruddy words sound so trite and inept. I just want to say that this world is less appealing with out Mott-ly in it.
About 4 years ago I had decided that I wanted to make a movie, a documentary of sorts, about Mott and his life. Well, then I was faced with how reclusive and unreachable that he can be for several months at a time and so I pushed that idea to the side and let it just simmer quietly in the back of my mind as if a daydream. Well, ironically, now that I do not have to consider the subject's availability, I feel that I must continue with the project as a tribute to someone that so many will miss. I am looking for his artwork to photograph/film, videos of him or of Mudhead, and stories about Mott to be videotaped from those who knew him. If you would like to contribute you can email me at: fosamsara@sbcglobal.net

Bye Mott-Ly RIP

BTW - Don't forget he was also singer in The Tunneldogs.

Don't forget he was also singer of the Tunneldogs.

Bye Mott-LY

RIP

Thanks for everything Mott-ly.

Love,
The Punks

=)

you are a good man mott-ly.

thank you

Mott-ly,
may you rest in peace and look down on all the KC punks and keep them safe. When i first met mott-ly, we were playing our first show at the momo, it was a birthday bash for one of kc's finest and most fun punk bands. mott-ly strolled out in his wheel chair and greeted me with a smile and firm hand shake. he said "hey you guys here for the show". he was always nice to all of us kc punks and put up with alot of our antics. from kids shooting out street lights with bb guns to 15 yearold throwing up all over them selvs out side. he always welcomed us back. any time. he said just give him a call to book another show and he would make time in his day to clear up the art room floor. Mott-ly, where ever you are, you will always be missed by us punks.

Love,
ben

I just found out 2 days ago. Pretty much still in shock. I met Mott-ly in Nov of 2002 when I was in town & went by the initial MoMO location, I was in a wheelchair and the floor was a little exciting (erm). We hit it off immediately. A year later I had my first show at MoMO (The Unendowed). Whenever we were in town we'd stay as artists-in-residence in STRETCH's space, so we were usually shacking up in the space behind MoMO (in its 2nd location). We'd spend hours and hours doin stuff with Mott-ly, dragging him out of the neighborhood...since we could all load up in my wheelchair van. I remember one night when Mott-ly found out that we record Tribe8 in our studio...he wheeled to his room and came back with his box of treasured photos and went rifling thru it coming up with pix of Tribe8 playing Lincoln...the main one he was excited about what Lynnee with her strap-on wingwang faking peeing into Mott-ly's prosthetic leg that he'd thrown up on the stage! And we found looking at the pix that we'd met long before. Back in the early 90's we'd both been involved in ACT-UP...and I'd been working with ACT-UP KC at the same time.
We were there more than a month when Eliot and I both hung shows in Leedy Voulkos and again when Eliot had a show at MoMO (Greeetings from Robot City). We were there the day Weeble arrived. Tiny, dirty and with its foot bitten off...it was found out in an alley behind the building. We cleaned Weeble up and cut a finger off a nitrile glove to feed it a little milk till we could go to the store the next day. Mott-ly immediately started joking that they had 3 good legs between them!
I last saw Mott-ly in September...when we'd been struggling again thru the website issue. He promised he'd have all his images and stuff sorted out when we came back thru in June. We'll be there in a couple of weeks. After struggling thru all the crap, especially in the last few years, it is bummin that he's no longer with us. I hope he's happily creating art in the wherever comes after. Mott-ly, I'd been missing you already in the months we'd not been thru KC, now you're gone dangit, and in the middle of projects and everything. Mott-ly, we'll miss you forever.
I put up a few pix of him & the gallery on a photocast...
http://photocast.mac.com/kbanshee/iPhoto/mott-ly/index.rss

some links...

www.mottly.com

http://caul.org/media/mott_parade.mov

Gina,

The article you wrote about Mott-ly was wonderful. His gallery was so unique. Though we did not know Mott-ly very well, we visited his gallery on First Friday's and we met David Goodrich, an artist who now lives in Oklahoma there showing his work! Because of Mott-ly we had the opportunity to buy two of his pieces. We owe a sincere debt of gratitude to him.

I will say though that we loved his fascination with Pez dispensers!!!

Thanks again, Ben and Donna Raskin

I was giving Mott a ride a few years back, at about the time he lost his second leg. I don't recall whether it was gone yet or not. It hardly matters since he had a lot of pain either before or after. He just started to complain a little then stopped, and said "I shouldn't complain." I actually laughed. I said "Mott, you're not the first person that I would tell to quit their whining. When you want to complain to me, then you complain." Still, he wouldn't. Not very often.
I could tell 20 years worth of stories, but it's enough to say that Mott played and had fun while the rest of us able-bodied whiney-asses complained. He had fun with his gallery and always wanted, on some First Friday, while the other galleries showed their very important artwork, to conduct an indoor petting zoo in his space. This was his humor. He was too often distracted to plan well for things, but I was anxious for his new venture with Apryl, the Slap and Tickle Gallery. With Apryl's help and humor, perhaps these thing would have been better realized. Apryl intends to go ahead with the plans they made, and I wish her luck. Perhaps she can help to channel some of that old Mott'ly spirit that so many of us will miss so much.
Rest in Peace, pal. You're a piece of my heart.

Bye Mott-ly. The Crossroads Infoshop, of which you were a collective member, will miss you. I was saddened to hear of your passing and sadder still that I was unable to attend your celebration. I had seen you a few short days earlier and asked of your recent move...just idle hello and chit- chat. I didn't realize it would be the last time as I had plans of knowing you better. Goodbye Comrade, we all loved you.

I remember first meeting Motly in KCAI in the printmaking department in 1985 what an awsome year there was a gorup of people and i remember his bright red hair and yellow hair and his suit and shoes but the artwork was what it was all about - the tiny delicate etchings he was an awsome spirit. I knew him for years in KCAI then out of the blue I saw him here in NYC during an alumni meeting 1999? It was an awsome rush we talked all night and I ended up giving him a ride home I knew things in NYC were tough on him but in hindsight looks like what he did afterwards was far better - he had alot of love and carried a hard weight - i know he is happy somewhere and i wish him well and lots of sun.

X Marks the spot in my day everyday when I think about those that I love in Kansas City.
Motley was one of those people that made my time back home so great.... I look forward to remembering him and what he did for my me and for the rest of the kids every time I'm back in K.C.
xoxoxo

First time I meet Mott, he and Tom were shit faced and I gave them a ride too the Charlotte st. house. the last time I saw him, he still won't let me light him on fire ( in the wheel chair), but then again we did get to have more fun than any two guys with one leg between them should or ever will have! Mott-ly you ARE my personal savior and I'll gimp-shit ass kick anyone who says otherwise!! As your barber/driver/friend/brother/side-kick/nemisisisis/pain in the ass/fellow hippie hater(girls excluded) I will miss you forever and think of you often. But not like at night when I'm alone and touching myself. More like when I see all our friends laughing and acting like fools. Thats when I'll think of you, and piss my self! Love RAMJET
Captain my Captain

I'm very late in discovering this news and was completely overwhelmed with sadness at the loss this world has experienced. I moved from my hometown of KC in '95 and I don't find out about things as important as this until far too late. Mott was truly one of a kind and is by far one of the the finest human beings I've ever known in my life. I remember all the hot summer nights hanging out with the Mott, Vince, Chris and whoever may have also been drawn to his home on any given night(as so many often were - not because he had a posh abode, but because he was a magnet for people when they needed to be near such amazing kindness, humor and generosity). I'm completely overwhelmed with emotion right now and can't find the ability to share the reels of images I have running on my mind's screen about Mott and everything I feel so lucky to have experienced with him. I briefly "played" bass with Mudhead. Well, really, I just went to a few practices before we decided it would be so much better to get me out of there and get someone with talent, rather than my horrifying inability to approach anything near the talent of the other members of the band. I'd warned Mott that I couldn't play, but he insisted that I try. That's typical Mott-ly: he had so much confidence that, if given the chance, a person would find their store of hidden talent. This was his gift, however. He possessed so many talents in so many aspects of life that it was natural for him to do well in whatever he imagined trying. People like me, who really had anti-talent (painfully horrible, meant for only bad punk rock) when it came to playing bass, were just being hard on themselves in his eyes and could surely do well if given a chance to make it look as easy as he did with everything. I love him for giving me so many chances before I finally convinced him that I was simply a moron with a bass. Luckily, Mudhead continued along and so did my friendship with Mott. Luckily we were able to laugh hysterically about it years later. I was also lucky enough to share an awful lot of magnificently hilarious times with him that still make me laugh even through my tears tonight. There's nothing in the world I would accept to lose a moment of the times I was able to spend with him. I'd give anything to have him back, though. Even though I haven't seen him in years, he's been the one person I've asked about whenever I spoke with KC people. During my one visit back since I've moved, I tried tracking him down but it seems to have been one of his vanishing times. I'll miss him terribly. I have missed him and now I have a profound sense of loss to discover we are forever without him in our worlds.

-April

I ran across this thread years after this article was published. I was thinking about Mott-ly as I do surprisingly often considering it has been about ten years since I saw him last. I was looking for any info about him online, Unfortunately there's not much so I thought i might as well offer some of my best memories/impressions of Mott-ly. My first encounter came while watching Mud-head around KC/Lawrence in the '86 vicinity. I was only 14 at the time and was just discovering music. It's embarrassing to think about how dorky me and my suburban skateboarding teen-age pals were back then. It was a strange time because to me there wasn't that great a difference between REM and MDC or JFA or whatever. I was too young and too naive to draw strict lines between Black Flag and the Smiths or The Cramps or New Order-as long as it was something all the 'jocks' at my high school didn't know about it- you could count me in. All the musical snobbery would come later. At that age, not having any cool older brothers or parents or (the internet) it really took a lot of effort to discover music that you couldn't hear on the radio (unless you could position perfectly your boombox-which I never having seen a ghetto except when quickly driving through East KC-called a 'ghetto blaster' as to pick up KJHK in Lawrence or buy records -or tapes-from the 'imports' section of the 5 or 6 actual record stores in the area back then-also keeping in mind I didn't have much money so when you spent $9 on a record there was no way of knowing if it was any good till you got it home-so I bought many records on the strength of the record covers-only to get burned by the time it hit my turntable-or to find out that it was an EP and only actually had 2 songs!!!). In my suburb in 1986 just letting a tuft of hair fall in front of one eye was a huge statement. Maybe it still is in Overland Park but I doubt it. Well needless to say going to the Outhouse and the all-ages balcony at The Uptown etc...were hugely influential experiences for me. Being so desperate for ANYTHING out-of-the-ordinary I devoured music. I went to go see every live show that I could. It didn't matter if it was a sold out Husker Du concert or Drowning Incident playing to ten people on a Tuesday. If it was all-ages and I could get a ride...I was there. Thinking back most of the bands were terrible. 95% of hardcore ages very very badly and many of the local-alternative bands age even worse. But as cringe-inducing as it seems today-to me even the most heinous white-reggae band were worth my undivided attention. Even though I was simultaneously discovering the Butthole Surfers and their Touch and Go brethren I was really not prepared for Mudhead. This band was different. Easily the coolest and most interesting band to ever emerge from the area (aside from 1930's jazz) that I've ever heard of. They became my (and my friends who were in the process of losing our skateboards and discovering acid guitars and girls) favorite local band. I probably saw them 15 times. I wouldn't know which show to focus on. I remember a show in Lawrence with Agent Orange-Jello Biafra-Mind Over Four-Underdog (speaking of music that ages very very very badly). What a lineup. It makes no sense. You couldn't be picky in Kansas back then. Well I was on acid and I swore that Mott-ly was staring at me through the panty-hose mask he was wearing the entire show. I moved around to different sections of the crowded club only to feel like his stare was following me. The music was so good. The band was so unusual looking. Truly psychedelic. Swirling guitars. That to my recollection played pretty simple parts-but I could never figure out how they were making the sounds half the time. Archer and Barry were really great musicians (esp Archers drumming-who else could blow away Fela's entire phalanx of teenage drummers after opening for them in Volker Park-Mudhead and Fela?!?!-now that was a show!!!! somebody please buid me a time machine) But Mottly was the star of the band. Completely unpredictable. He was better than Gibby Haynes-though it is all criminally undocumented. You had to be there and I feel so lucky that I was. Sure I was too young to see the great sixties and seventies bands but even the snobbiest-know-it-all coastal eletists will never know how great this secret band was. Maybe it's better that way. They released a single and a track on that KC singles comp. Years later Mott gave me a long lost tape of five or six other songs from those sessions. It was great but it did not match their live power. There was always rumors that Albini was going to do something with them postumously. I would eventually live across the street from Mott while attending KCAI. We became great pals and I came on his radio show a couple times. I would also get to know him later when he moved to NYC. He's a legend in my eyes and one of the greatest role models in my life.