This is a very exciting time for Hap and I! We are embarking on a monumental endeavor to create a massive beacon for travelers who are entering St. Louis via the new Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge that spans the Mississippi river on the Near North Riverside neighborhood.
The mural will be painted on the historic Cotton Belt Rail Depot building located at 1400 N. First Street in St. Louis, Missouri. The building faces east toward the Mississippi river and is visible from the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge. The dimensions of the mural will be approximately 750′ long by 60′ tall, occupying the top four floors.
The design incorporates a brightly colored bird motif that has become a standard pattern in many of our collaborative works. Using the birds as repetitive design elements allows us to arrange them in such a way that the mural as a whole can appear to be a landscape or a flowing river.
The idea for a mural was originally proposed by Tom Nagel, now the Communications Coordinator for the CityArchRiver 2015 Foundation. While not an artist himself, he saw a tremendous opportunity when Rally Saint Louis posted calls for ideas to better the St. Louis area.
Quoting from their site: “Rally Saint Louis is a crowdsourcing and crowdfunding platform that generates ideas and uses funding from the region’s residents and then uses those ideas to help market greater Saint Louis.”
Tom’s proposal received 1,788 votes and donations of $20,857 out of the $21,000 requested for phase I of the project. Part of this funding was due to a generous contribution by the St. Louis Convention and Visitor’s Commission. An additional amount of money was contributed by individual donors after the Rally St. Louis votes had closed, bringing the total contributions to $24,000.
While these donations are greatly appreciated, this project could use more funding for paint, equipment, a laptop/wifi (for remote updates), and artist salaries.
On our current budget, Phase I will allow us to do only a partial coverage of the building. Any help from the public would be greatly appreciated!
Stay tuned for further updates on the progress of this magnificent project.
Muse Creative Painting and Design 
thank you nita for all you do
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Yeah! More money for paint, and pay artists!!
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Let those River Birds fly free!
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