KCKPL Media Blog


Joe Faus and the KCK Mural Project, Part 5: Up and Down, Round and Round
October 22, 2008, 1:31 pm
Filed under: Art, Community, Interviews, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , ,

The KCK Mural Project series continues! In this segment, Joe talks about one of his favorite collaborative murals. Up and Down, Round and Round is a bright, carnival-themed mural painted in the style of Japanese manga. Located at 947 Minnesota Avenue, this mural was created by a group of KCK high school students and inspired by a writing group for senior citizens from the Shepherd Center.

Over an intensive period of several weeks, the students met with the senior writing group and listened to stories they had written about their families and personal histories. They then worked with Joe Faus to process the ideas about family, birth, death, life and love that were present in those stories. The theme of life as a carnival soon emerged, inspired by the idea that while so much of what happens in life seems to be brought about by chance and fraught with risk, we still have the power of choice over our actions.

* Find this mural on Google Maps

* Here’s the original KCK Mural Project post



Joe Faus and the KCK Mural Project, Part 4: Avenue Chronicles
June 10, 2008, 11:58 am
Filed under: Art, Community, Interviews, Local History | Tags: , , , , ,

This mural, located at 9th and Minnesota Avenue, was a collaboration with a team of Wyandotte County high school students. The initial concept was to create a mural dealing with the history of downtown KCK. One of the students came up with the idea to use a filmstrip motif, depicting over one hundred years of history through the ever-evolving camera lense. Here Joe talks about how the project came together.

* find this mural on Google Maps

* here’s the original KCK Mural Project Post

* Joe has a show up at the Townhouse Gallery! You can see his paintings on display through August 8th.



Joe Faus and the KCK Mural Project, Part 3: The Kansan Mural
June 2, 2008, 4:45 pm
Filed under: Art, Community, Interviews, Local History | Tags: , , , , ,

In 2002, the Kansas City Kansan newspaper sold its building at Eighth and Armstrong and moved out west. The paper had called the building home for more than 75 years. In this clip Joe discusses Alisha Gambino’s unique design for the Kansan building mural- a tribute to the early days of KCK’s daily newspaper.

* find this mural on Google maps



Joe Faus and the KCK Mural Project, Part 2: El Baile de la Vida
May 26, 2008, 8:00 am
Filed under: Art, Community, Interviews, Local History | Tags: , , , ,

In Spanish, “El Baile de la Vida” means “The Dance of Life”. This mural, painted in 2004, portrays dances and costumes specific to nineteen different Mexican states, all of which are represented here in Kansas City, Kansas. In this clip Joe talks about how he and Alisha Gambino worked to create a mural portraying both the commonalities and the diversity inherent in KCK’s Mexican American community through the language of dance.

* find this mural on Google Maps.

* here’s the original KCK Mural project post.

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