Exhibit of Cellular Kites Opens at Airport

Jesse Mota and Jeff Tanner, of the Billings airport maintenance staff, remove Lewis & Clark Exhibit kites from the terminal building at the airport to make way for the Cellular Kite Celebration Exhibition. Photo by LARRY MAYER/Gazette Staff.

By JACI WEBB
Gazette Staff

Terry Zee Lee's name has become synonymous with kites and if she has her way, Montana will be as well.

Lee has just secured sponsorship from La Quinta Inn and Suites for a show of 16 cellular kites, opening June 1 at Billings Logan Airport. A special preview of the kites, which began arriving in Billings this month, will be held the weekend of May 26 at the grand opening of La Quinta Inn and Suites on King Avenue West.

"The airport is the first place travelers see of Montana. More than any other place, they get their first glimpse of Montana there. And you just can't beat the visual impact of a kite display," said Lee, who is the special events coordinator for Billings Logan Airport and the Founding Director of SkyWindWorld.

The first kite exhibit Lee helped organized was in 2001, when the National Kite Flyers Convention came to Billings. The most recent show, which was up for three years at the airport, celebrated Lewis and Clark's journey.

The three previous kite exhibits in Billings brought 220 tour groups to the airport and hundreds of schoolchildren made kites in workshops taught by world famous kite makers. "Kite making involves science, math, art and physical education," Lee said. "When we go into the schools, we teach all of that."

This new exhibit will showcase cellular kites of many unique designs, some dating back to the 1800s when the race was on to invent a flying machine. Alexander Graham Bell was involved in experiments in the late 1800s with cellular kites pulled behind steam engines and draft horses to get them higher in the sky.

"Bell was recruited to help lend credibility to a project by Professor Langley," Lee said. "He sort of stumbled on a unique triangular shape, a tetrahedron geometric form that, if put together, could fly up to 2,000 feet in the air. His kites proved it was possible to get man in the air." Helen Keller, a good friend of Bell's, was even part of some of the experiments, Lee said.

One of the kites that will be in this new display is a red cell tetra, a replica of one of Bell's kites. Lee has spent months researching kite makers and cellular kites to bring to this show. A table in her office is piled high with kite magazines, some depicting men whose kites will be at this show in Billings.

One of the first kites secured for the show was "Nine Cell Visions" made by Washington, D.C. kitemaker Drake Smith. The bold red-and-black kite displays symbols of all the tribes who aided Lewis and Clark in their journey. Another kite on its way here is a 30-foot-long arch constructed by an Australian kitemaker

"We have the best of the best coming here," Lee said.

Feature photo: Kites in flight

DAVID GRUBBS
Gazette Staff

Sixth grade students at Independent Elementary in Billings Heights tried their hands at kite flying Friday morning. Terry Lee, president of Sky Wind World, Inc. gave the kids pointers on building and flying the kites. The kites each had a letter on them spelling out, "Give Peace a Chance, John Lennon, Independent School, Montana." Lee hopes to contact Montana Sen. Jon Tester's office and see if the organization can send the kites to troops in Iraq. Lee said Friday the writing on the kites is not meant for a war protest but a comment for the Iraqi people.

Terry Lee on Kites

My childhood involvement with kites came from flying them at the beach every summer. Perfect summer days included having a favorite kite way up in the air, attached to my wrist, while digging clams at Cannon Beach, Oregon. Now as an adult, I use kites as a lightweight, economical, yet colorful art form to fill the ceiling space of large public buildings. No other craft creates as strong a visual impact. Even after eight years of watching, I still enjoy seeing the expression on travelers faces as they enter the baggage claim room at Billings Logan Airport and become fascinated with the kites, on display above their arriving luggage. The kite world offers numerous benefits in addition to visual delights : pleasant outdoor days in the company of eclectic friends from all over the world, hordes of laughing children that want to learn to fly, and continual artistic and logistical challenges when designing and making a new kite. I love the thrill of seeing a piece of art, engineered to fly, framed by sky, soaring high above me. Kite flying is a deeply satisfying avocation on multiple levels.

This 8-foot turquoise Rokakku kite titled “The Day the Horses Arrived” shows horses coming down to earth, pouring out of the sky. It was inspired by an April 7, 1805, letter to President Jefferson from Captain Meriwether Lewis who wrote, “The circumstances of the Snake Indians possessing large quantities of horses, is much in our favor, as by means of horses, the transportation of our baggage will be rendered easy and expeditiously overland, from the Missouri to the Columbia”.

It is one in a series of kites that were displayed at Billings Logan Airport during a three-year exhibit commemorating the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The kite was built by Steve Ferrell and painted by Terry Zee Lee who says, “Native American legends tell how the Great Spirit gave horses to the Indian people. I used acrylics, oil paint, black and gold glitter, and gold, silver and copper leaf, and wonder how many of these materials will stay on when it is flown. It was a challenge to figure out how to represent the horses, since they were such an integral part of the journey”.