Plaza building covered with graffiti after protests now a canvas for giant artwork
The protests that started in late May at Mill Creek Park in Kansas City over the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police set several things in motion that are still going today.
One of those things is the completion of mural on a building near Mill Creek Park on the Country Club Plaza that had been tagged with graffiti during the protests.
The building had been abandoned for several years and neighboring Plaza merchants wanted it dealt with. A new local non-profit called SPRAYKC was formed and the organization enlisted the help of five artists to transform the blighted building into a five-story work of art.
One of the artists, muralist JT Daniels of Kansas City was putting the finishing touches on his portion of the artwork Monday. He was covering up some of the graffiti from the protests but he said he wanted to make sure the mural represented some of those sentiments that came from the protests. Daniels said he wanted to create a message of inclusivity so he included characters who represented Kansas City. “My message is always we’re all in this together,” Daniels said.
Another muralist, Octavio Logo of Fayetteville, Arkansas, was also finishing his portion of the giant artwork on Monday. His contribution to the mural is one of the most prominent images on the building. It is a depiction of a seated Abraham Lincoln, like the sculpture in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., but underwater with jellyfish swimming by. Logo said the image represents two issues, global warming and social injustice.
The completed mural can be seen at West 46th Terrace and Mill Creek Parkway.
This story was originally published October 22, 2020 at 12:47 PM.
