Meet the artists whose work you’ll see on the Kansas City streetcar this summer
This week, Kansas City residents and World Cup visitors will be able to see a lot more artwork along the streetcar route as part of the new Art in the Loop Project.
The Art in the Loop Foundation aims to engage artists in the continuous revitalization of downtown, according to their website.
The theme for the 13th annual Art in the Loop’s is home, and how it has shaped the artist and what it means to them, according to their website. Artists were encouraged to think about how their memories have changed over time and what they have learned about others and their homes throughout their life.
Besides visual artists along the streetcar route, there are also performance artists who will perform at one of five events between June and October.
Eleven visual artists were chosen to display their work on either a streetcar shelter, a streetcar wrap or at a park near a stop. Below are digital renditions of their work, what inspires them and where to find them along the streetcar route.
‘Small Works Art Gallery’ in Roanoke Park
Cheryl Gail, an abstract painter who dabbles in drawing and sculptures, centers a lot of her work on connection and building community and has created an interactive way for residents to interact with artists by making a mini gallery at Roanoke Park.
It’s like a free library, Gail said, but with pieces of art made locally by anyone.
“That’s the beauty of it,” she said. “It’s a community gallery, so people take and leave what they want. I will go in and assess and make sure there’s nothing offensive. It’s for the community, so the community kind of gets to interact with it on a daily basis.”
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The idea came to her a couple of years ago, and she created a mini gallery in Roeland Park. For this latest project, she made a call on social media for local artists to submit work for the mini gallery.
“It really varies,” Gail said about the type of work put in the mini galleries. “We have some professional artists who stop by and put in their work. I know this woman, Virginia, she’s in her 80s, and she brings us ceramic pieces. There’s kid art, art from folks with different abilities and everything in between.”
Anyone walking past the mini gallery is encouraged to take what speaks to them, and to even drop off bits of their own work.
“I was talking to some of my artist friends about how it would be really cool if people from other countries took our work back home,” Gail said. “Like cross-pollinating, not just within our community but worldwide, would be really sweet.”
Gail’s work can be seen at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research & the Belger Collection, University of Kansas Medical Center and more.
‘Evening Flights’ streetcar wrap
Ramona Cliff, a Lawrence-based artist, started her public art journey in 2019, and has since painted several murals in Lawrence and Topeka, and notably a beaded piece inside the Kansas City International Airport.
Her streetcar wrap, titled “Evening Flights,” was inspired by swallow birds she and her daughter came across while doing a mural project along the Shunga Trail in Topeka a few years ago.
“We were taking a break, and it was just this really magical moment where we were sitting next to the creek, we were taking a break from painting, and we were just being immersed in all of these swallows, ducking and diving, and the glitter on the creek,” she said. “ Ever since then I’ve been incorporating the swallows into my painting practice. I just find that they’re magical little birds.”
Cliff, originally from the Pacific Northwest, came to Kansas to study at Haskell Indian Nations University as a member of the Gros Ventre tribe (also known as A’aninin/Nakota Nations) of Fort Belknap, Montana.
“I just think it’s a privilege to be able to be able to share my work with everybody,” she said. “I don’t like to say that I’m a representative of native people, but just sharing work that comes from a native person is a privilege to me, and an honor, showcasing that we have a vibrant, thriving culture.”
‘Home is Imagination’ at the Riverfront shelter
Kai Johnson’s work, “Home is Imagination,” at the Riverfront streetcar shelter, is inspired by their grandmother’s pink house. She had a computer room during Johnson’s childhood growing up, and they remember watching YouTube videos, playing in the backyard games they made up on the fly and using up paper, tape and band-aids. In their design, Johnson depicted themselves as their grandmother’s house.
“My piece was the house is like me in a way, and it’s creating different board games, TV cartoons, things like that,” Johnson said.
Johnson works in the mental health field, helping people on their recovery journey from substance abuse, anxiety, alcohol. They find inspiration through mental health, often coming up with ideas while meditating and journaling.
“From those meditations I’m taking what I’m discovering with myself, or if I’m needing to ponder on something that happened, I’m taking those, and I’m trying to make an image out of it,” they said. “That way it’s like something tangible for me to remember that feeling or remember that lesson that I learned, and then that’s like my way of sharing with others to hopefully help them too with whatever they’re going through.”
Johnson has designed patches for KC Current’s Pride collection, hand-painted a banner for the Google Pixel x NWSL Championship, wrestling merchandise and uniforms and more.
‘We Are Home’ at the North Loop southbound shelter
Laedan Galicia, whose artist name is DINKC, incorporates old school cartoons like graffiti, street art and Mexican culture into his work. From Kansas City, Galicia has been traveling to other states and cities to showcase his work since 2012 before moving back in 2020.
“I first wanted to illustrate a playful scenario that’ll attract the young eye and make them laugh,” he said in his bio on the AITL website. “Showing that things happen in life that we sometimes do not have control over, but that we can still enjoy the little things and make the most of it. Who wouldn’t want to float away into the sky?”
His piece, ‘We are Home” at the North Loop southbound shelter, features a little skull character, in his signature design, similar to a sugar skull. He sees it as a reflection of himself.
“He’s the basis of all my artwork,” DINKC said. “I illustrated a version of him, a younger youthful version of him, and you see him being blown away while holding some balloons that are in heart shapes. If you imagine the street car stop, he’s just kind of floating. I wanted to illustrate him like a funny little cartoony image that you see at first and you kind of giggle a little bit, but then I wanted to represent our youth in a way, spreading love and then within the actual balloon it says, ‘we are home,’”
The message on the balloon, Galicia said, is an ode to the political climate. He wanted to take pride in being the son of immigrants and empower the community.
“No matter what, even though we’re immigrants, we are home. We’ve been here for a long time, and we do help our community move forward in a way that’s positive,” he said. “I wanted to show love, spread a message of love, which I believe is what we all need right now.
”Having his art on display during the World Cup, he said, is an incredible opportunity.
“There are out-of-state people coming in, worldwide audience, and so I want to showcase, obviously the beautiful art that KC has to offer, the amazing community that we have of creatives, but also be able to showcase my work and my voice that I’ve been creating for s long.”
Galicia has shown his work in Chicago, Tucson, Philadelphia, Mexico and the United Kingdom and has since expanded his art form to include tattoos.
‘The Seasons of Home’ at the Southmoreland northbound shelter
Kevin VanEmburgh combined four individual works into one piece, “The Seasons of Home,” at the Southmoreland northbound streetcar shelter, which he said isn’t necessarily a place to him, but rather a feeling. Each canvas evokes emotion with the thousands of brush marks and countless layers of paint which, according to him, represent feelings, memories and things that happen to people over time.
“Up close it seems chaotic and disjointed, but as you back up, it’s more of a pattern and a tapestry that comes together and to me represents who we are as individuals,” he said. “Things that happen to us don’t feel connected at the time, but as you grow older and pull back from the art, it does seem to take on like the sense of who you are, everything, the things that happen to us, the things that we do in our lives make up who we are.”
Some of those he adds in life are heavier, and others lighter. The darker pieces represent the harder moments in life and the lighter ones represent the happier moments,” he said.
VanEmburgh has been painting for five years and mainly works with acrylics on larger canvases, normally 40 inches by 70 or 80 inches and paints in several layers. Before that he was a photographer for about 25 years.
“I think that working with larger campuses gives me more of an opportunity to just step back and let the canvas tell me what it wants to say, and then I work from there,” he said.
VanEmburgh is very excited to be involved with the Art in the Loop project.
“Art in public, I think, makes everything better. It makes the downtown more vibrant, more beautiful, and if I can contribute to that, even in a small way, I’d love to do that,” he said.
‘A Modern Belonging’ at the Kauffman southbound shelter
Taylar Sanders mainly paints on canvas, wood and glass or murals and likes to describe her work as bridging the gap between fine and functional art.
Her piece at the Kauffman southbound streetcar shelter, titled “A modern Belonging,” is an adaptation of her original oil painting, “I Come in Peace.” It’s an image of a man with his eyes closed in a moment of introspection amongst trees, holding some flowers.
“It’s like thinking of home, that peaceful rest, refuge that many of us are seeking is a reminder that we can always find within ourselves and we can take that feeling with us wherever we go,” she said.
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Sanders grew up in South Kansas City and is excited to give streetcar riders something peaceful to look at and engage with while at the stop.
“I’m anticipating there’s going to be many more people riding the streetcar, and just the opportunity for so many people to see my art and to see the themes and the messages that are found within it, and to, to expose it to, you know, international viewers,”
Sanders has been painting for nine years, much of it includes figurative paintings that depict the complexity of Black identity and emotion with oil paint on canvas, wood and glass, according to the AITL website. Her work can be found at several exhibitions, as well as two Kansas City Parade of Hearts and public murals.
‘Wandering Dreams’ at Oppenstein Park
Christine Cookson, a recent Kansas City area transplant, is a window artist and muralist who works primarily with acrylic and spray paint. Her piece, titled “Wandering Dreams,” seeks to bring peace to travelers at Oppenstein Brothers Memorial Park.
“I remembered as a kid I would go out and pick clovers and dandelions, just like that peaceful feeling that I had younger in nature,” she said, adding the painting is meant to reflect the idea that home, like dreams, is not fixed.
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In the mural, a young girl is seen blowing a dandelion stem. The seeds are flying into the air.
“They drift until they find new ground, a place to land, to be cared for and to grow. Home isn’t always where you start, sometimes it’s where your dreams finally take root,” Cookson said.
Originally from Utah, Cookson moved to Bethany a few years ago before settling in Kearney. She heard about Art in the Loop from people who hired her to do commissions. She believes art should be more accessible, and hopes the initiative encourages more people to paint and be around art.
“There is something really special about having something that’s handmade and or created in this world with AI-generated stuff everywhere,” she said. “I like to make something that stands out that makes people stop and think like that’s beautiful and makes them think about what it means a little bit, even if they don’t know what it means.”
‘Abuelita’s Kitchen’ at the River Market West shelter
Vania Soto, an immigrant from Juarez, Mexico, said she bases a lot of her artwork around heritage and culture. She describes her murals as vibrant and colorful. Her work can be found all over Kansas City, including Power & Light and the West Bottoms as well as lots of restaurant murals, which is how she got started.
This year’s theme she said was right down her alley since most of the work she does is related to her upbringing. Her mural was actually a live painting she did at the River Market West (Delaware) streetcar shelter. It’s a portrait of her grandmother, Amparo Alvidres Favela cooking.
“I feel like most of our everyday living stems from those moments in childhood,” she said.
Soto came to the United States when she was eight, and said food was at the epicenter of how her family celebrated their culture. Alvides Favela was at the center of that, making mole, Soto’s favorite dish.
“You could just visualize your grandmother cooking in her kitchen, all the pots and pans around them,” she said. “I think most people had the same upbringing as going to their grandmother’s house and their grandmother cooking, and remembering, reminiscing those smells as your childhood first experience.”
Soto hopes her painting reminds everyone of their home, reminding them of their childhood and maybe with their grandmothers while also honoring the way immigrant families carry their culture through food, rituals and storytelling.
‘Blossoming Origins’ at the Library Northbound shelter
Michelle Briggs’ digital drawing at Library Northbound shelter, “Blossoming Origins,” is inspired by a family reunion she went to last year. Her aunts and uncles made a history book about the family and how they came to Kansas through her great great-great-grandfather on her mother’s side, who was found as a baby on an Oklahoma reservation. He was picked up by settlers and brought to Kansas.
That baby grew up and had between 15 and 18 kids. One of them was her great-great-grandfather Arthur, who had her grandmother, Lachomer, who eventually had Briggs’ mother. Her parents and younger brother are featured in the painting in honor of how her family members have impacted Kansas City through giving back and investing in the community.
“If that baby never got picked up, I never would have been here to begin with. It is just so bizarre to even think about…,” Briggs said. “Somebody just decided to pick up the baby and take it to Arkansas, and then from there came generations of children that are just out here doing the thing for their city, that was the reason for my design.”
Briggs, who mainly works with acrylics, hopes people take away that you reap what you sow. That it’s important not to minimize or overlook those small things that make up the bigger picture, and to remember the generations that came before you have made the foundation you stand on today.
“The intricate things in the grand scheme of things, those intricate pieces make up the bigger story,” she said. “And that’s not just for me, I feel like that’s the theme for everyone. That’s the theme for every family that has a unique story.”
Briggs is currently working on a mural project at the Justice and Dignity Center off 31st and Paseo Boulevard. Her work has previously been shown at the Kansas City ARt Coalition “Confronted with the Gaze of Another” and the Zhou B Art Center’s “Reclaiming the Canvas” exhibition, according to her bio on the AITL website.
Outside of art, Briggs she works as a registered behavioral technician for students on the autistic disorder spectrum.
‘Patio Barbecues at Armour southbound streetcar shelter
Deanna Dikeman, a photographer, submitted a series of photos of her father barbecuing with her son between the years 1996 and 2008. “Patio Barbecues” can be found at the Armour southbound streetcar shelter.
Years ago, Dikeman had made a photo book and filled it with the photos she took of her parents who lived in Iowa. Many of them were capturing ordinary moments of her parents Pat and Jerry Dykeman. It became a ritual for her to capture them waving goodbye from their driveway, which went viral online during the pandemic and was published by the New Yorker.
“I’ve always kind of made it my passion to show the Midwest in an interesting way, the real people that live here and how kind of homey, friendly, caring and kind we are,” she said.
Sure, she said, she could’ve picked a lot of moments from her parents, including the ones of them waving, but she chose her father’s grilling, which she believes is an activity that reflects the region well.
“This is a barbecue town, so I started digging and I found pictures of my dad on the barbecue, and since the Art in the Loop has four panels, I picked four pictures and thought I can tell a story in four pictures across time of these little patio barbecues. My dad with this little grill,” she said.
“We do have these people coming from all over the world, they’ve probably never been to Kansas City, and maybe they’ll never come back,” she said. “Hopefully they can see a little bit of what we look like. This is in Iowa, but it’s not that different.”
‘Carried by Sound’ at the River Market northbound streetcar shelter
Anjola Ayodele’s design at the River Market northbound streetcar shelter, “Carried by Sound,” shows a man playing the talking drum, an instrument popular in West Africa.
Originally from Nigeria, Ayodele has been all over. Her family moved to Canada when she was around 9 and then spent her teenage years in Texas and now lives in Kansas City. From the moves to very different places, Ayodele said she’s had to learn to connect to new environments.
“At the end of the day when people ask me like where is home it’s kind of hard to say,” she said about pondering the theme. “But I know the one thing that always connects me back, my culture. Aside from food and language and things like that, is music…and that’s how I kind of approached it.”
To Ayodele, percussion is a big part of the music that carries through time. In the mural, there are what she calls sound bubbles coming out of him into the space, which she said represents how music carries across generations.
“People like me whose parents immigrated, they’re living an interesting new dimension of their culture in a new space. Music and culture still makes that connection. So that’s kind of what inspired the piece. It’s vibrant in color, a lot of blues, oranges, I just wanted to capture that brightness that comes from music.”
Ayodele, who is a financial analyst, started doing digital drawings on Adobe Illustrator in 2016. After a while she began to share them online and started to sell them, and even got approached to do the book cover for ‘On the Come Up’ by Angie Thomas. She has had several installations across the country including Texas, Utah and Arizona.
