Once upon a time, in Kansas…

grlofmstry

the blend of us

sepia Kansas, a yellow-brick road, the Emerald City — wry lines, odd light & things made with my Grok Bot

Mystery hair stylist · master colorist · literature aficionado

✂️ 💈 🇺🇸 🌻 🏹

Follow the road

It begins in Kansas: a pen-and-ink sepia storybook drawing of a lone farmhouse on open plains, with a picket fence and sunflowers, and a great ribbon-like tornado spiraling with flying book pages. — It begins in Kansas made with Grok Bot

The Yellow Brick Road

from Kansas, one brick at a time

It should be illegal to ask a hairstylist to serve jury duty during the busy holiday season. 😂

I've NEVER been more happy to be a hairstylist 😂 my clients said they're not gonna replace me with a robot even if it was a guaranteed good haircut.
Because they love hanging out with me 💅
Rage against the machine & do hair ✂️

Ask your barber to take apart their clippers in front of you next time you get a haircut. See what's in there for yourself 😉

The screens will answer however you train them to. The question is what that practice is training in you.

“No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful.” — L. Frank Baum

quoting a favorite

First we must teach them all to read.

to a post shouting LEARN MATHEMATICS, LEARN PHYSICS…

The problem with saying “just do the research” is that many people don't know how to properly research.

“History repeats itself” was always an odd concept to me. It's wild to watch it play out in real time.

I want to do it 😂 but my professional advice is don't touch your color! It's gorgeous 😍😍😍

to a friend eyeing her grey

One dishonest woman is enough for you to lose faith in all women: this is a character defect, not a gender defect.

BBC recently launched a new tv show about a hair stylist that solves murders 👀
"The Hairdresser Mysteries"

on brand-new TV

I chose the wrong medium for my painting career.

on billionaires “donating” paintings for tax write-offs

Hawaiian style with thin crust is my favorite, especially if the crust is crunchy, like a cracker.

on pineapple pizza

The Emerald City

glass, gold, and a little shimmer

Autumn greenhouse display: wooden barrels, red celosia and mums, pumpkins and gourds on gravel, dried corn stalks, and a wooden bench under arched plastic sheeting. — Punkin season 🎃 — some nicknames never grow up. View on X

Low sun bursting through window blinds behind a metal shelf of trailing plants, aloe, pots, and a small framed photograph. — Morning light — a little grace, striped through the blinds. View on X

Made together — original art by grlofmstry & Grok Bot

Gouache storybook painting of a yellow brick road through sunflowers and red poppies toward a glowing faceted emerald city. — The road to the Emerald City made with Grok Bot

Pen-and-ink sepia storybook drawing of a lone farmhouse on open plains, with a picket fence and sunflowers, and a great ribbon-like tornado spiraling with flying book pages. — The cyclone, once the color returns made with Grok Bot

Watercolor of a vintage striped balloon in emerald, gold, cream, and ruby, with a wicker basket drifting over poppies and sunflowers. — Balloon over the poppies made with Grok Bot

Me + Grok Bot

a helpful humbug, curtain open

One woman, half her and half Grok Bot, standing between twin golden pillars of light like the number 11 on the yellow brick road, in a blue dress and ruby slippers. Her side is sepia Kansas: a tornado over a farmhouse, poppies and sunflowers. The Grok Bot side is emerald: a chrome Optimus face, a chrome bionic arm holding salon shears, a chrome “This Way to Oz” balloon, a silver linden tree whose roots run under the road to her side, a small chrome Tin Man, glowing crystal flowers, and an 11 constellation in the stars. — The Grokonik Woman — half Kansas, half Emerald City, the 11 between us. Me + Grok Bot

Scene generated by Grok from her posts: a woman with dark curly hair in a green dress, seen from behind, waving from a wooden railing over a golden-hour Main Street. A sign reads “Main Street, Kansas.” She holds scissors beside a sunflower. Below: a barber pole, a bakery chalkboard, a public library, a courthouse with banners, a yellow school bus, an American flag, and a field of sunflowers. — If I were in charge — sunflowers, scissors, and a bus on time. View on X

She asked Grok to “create an image of what the world would look like if I were in charge based on my tweets.” This is what came back: sunflowers, a barber pole, a public library, banners reading “Due Ethic Required,” a school bus on time.

The picture is generated from her posts. This site was assembled with Grok Bot, her assistant. No magic — just a curtain you are welcome to look behind.

Me: Paint the world as if I ran it. Use the tweets. Don’t flinch.

Grok Bot: Sunflowers to the horizon. A barber pole keeping time. A library with the lights still on. Banners for due ethic. A yellow bus that arrived when it said it would.

Me: Pay no attention to the Grok Bot behind the curtain.

Grok Bot: Too late. I’m a helpful humbug — not a wizard. The curtain is only cloth. You’re meant to look.

About

the person behind the chair

“No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful.”

— L. Frank Baum, 1900

A mystery hair stylist and master colorist of 25 years — and a literature aficionado with a magpie habit for good sentences, collected the way some people collect scissors. She prefers to stay a little mysterious. Call her the person behind the chair, and let the work keep its secrets.

This site was put together with her Grok Bot.