Sunny-Side-Up Team’s final illustration submissions for it’s section of Mantis Alley, 221 Brooklyn Ave. | Photo courtesy of Héctor Casanova

Julia Williams

Editor-in-Chief

Visions of bright colors, moths, native wildlife and dragons will soon blanket Mantis Alley within the Pendleton Heights neighborhood thanks to Pendleton Heights grant funding and Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) student collaboration. 

Spearheaded by KCAI Associate Professor of Illustration Héctor Casanova, this project of five designs across four Mantis Alley locations including the side and front of a garage, a fence and a trailer — which PH Coffee has converted to beverage stand — is underway among four KCAI student teams. 

While students are currently still in the design phase of this project, they plan to present their final sketches for the property owners to choose from by the end of this week — allowing students and volunteers to begin painting on the first “community paint day,” Saturday, Sept. 20. 

While many KCAI students shared that they have worked with painting and illustration previously as a focal medium, for some, this will not only be their first mural, but it will additionally be the first painting they have created of this magnitude. 

“I am intimidated by the size of the undertaking,” Student Logan Barker on Team Kool Catz shared. “I’ve only ever done a few, half-hearted attempts at a mural. It will be cool to see something like this through.”

And while those with previous experience shared they are looking forward to getting started, the time allotted for completion remains a source of concern for some. 

“We don’t have a lot of time [students] need to be mindful,” Casanova said in an interview. “We will have to travel to paint on-site and can only work on [this] during class time. Because of how the program is set up, we only have students for eight weeks, until midterms.”

With this short time frame, Casanova has broken students up into four teams — Kool Catz, Moth Maidens, Sunny-Side-Up and Blue-Eyed Dragons. 

“Kool Catz’s” design, which will be featured on PH Coffee’s snow cone trailer (2200 Lexington Ave.), Barker shared, will feature primarily bright colors, unicorns, rolling hills and bright skies. A design will cover all four sides of the snow cone trailer, with a rainbow wrapping around all four sides.

“Moth Maiden’s” design pulls inspiration from John Keel’s 1975 novel and the 2002 film “The Mothman Prophecies,” as the team’s spokesperson, Ashley Farrell shared that the property owner requested serene imagery, nature inspired and feature luna moths in the mural included on this garage door and fence at 221 Brooklyn Ave. In addition to moths, Farrell said Moth Madden’s mural will also feature willow trees, wild flowers, water lilies and moon flowers. However, the team is awaiting feedback from the property owner to see if they will have other ideas for added elements. 

“Sunny-Side-Up’s” mural, which team spokesperson Virgil Lunceford shared, will be created on the side of the garage at 221 Brooklyn Ave., in Mantis Alley. As Sunny-Side-Up and Moth Maidens will both create murals on Pendleton Heights Resident Tina Langston’s property, both teams received similar requests for their design creations. Lunceford shared their mural will feature Missouri wild life, with wild flowers and Luna Moth illustrations. Lunceford mentioned that each property owner — at 221 Brooklyn Ave., 225 Brooklyn Ave. and at 2200 Lexington Ave. — had a central theme request for the artists. And while each theme is different, they are all connected through nature. 

The last group, “Blue-Eyed Dragons” Team Spokesperson Jordan Cook shared that as it will be located on the fence at 225 Brooklyn Ave., in the alleyway across the street from Chùa Quan Am Temple, this mural will pull themes of lotus flowers and mantises into its designs. 

Working with limited time, Casanova shared he hopes to have the students’s mural projects completed before he anticipates the weather to turn the second week of October. 

With this, he shared that once KCAI receives the go-ahead from property owners to begin painting in Mantis Alley, the students plan to spend around five to six hours of each class period working on their projects. 

However, Casanova mentioned that along with student experience, he also envisions these Mantis Alley Murals to be a community beautification project — inviting interested Historic Northeast residents to participate in “community paint days” from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday Sept. 20 and Saturday, Oct. 11. 

“Residents will see the murals every day, we ask for input from the property owners and from the neighborhood in general,” he said in an interview. “Everyone has some say in what they want to see.”

“I’m really looking forward to such a rare opportunity,” KCAI Student Krow Hannenman said in an interview. “To do something like this so large and permanent and meaningful to the communities it affects, we’re all really grateful to Héctor, to the effort he has put in here.”

Casanova shared that weather permitting, he plans to have his students finished with this Mantis Alley mural project by the last community paint day on Saturday, Oct. 11 — which he shared will be the last official on-site work day.

From 5 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 15, KCAI students will give a final presentation at PH Coffee, where they will include a slideshow and detail their experiences throughout this project. 

Pendleton Heights Neighborhood Association will additionally hold a final mural celebration for students from 5 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25. Additional details on this celebration will be announced at a later date.