How it all started

Maybe you’ve seen these prehistoric creatures before.  They’re at 1608 Baltimore in downtown Kansas City, at the Jewish Vocational Service. It’s an organization that places refugees from all over the world in Kansas City, setting them up in apartments, helping them find jobs, and manage basic cultural integration.

I recently met with Joy Foster and Karen Janas, of JVS, about doing a mural on this parking lot wall.  They were both enthusiastic about it – so I’m going forward with it. The mural will feature the countries and symbols of the refugees the organization serves, and I intend to make it using stencils and paint – in a similar style to the dinosaur and mastodon so artfully placed on the same wall.

Here’s a first digital draft, incorporating the flag designs into the country shapes.  I’m not quite sure how this is going to work with the stencils and paint, and it will certainly be somewhat different in its final execution.  We’ll see!