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courtesy of Deaneal McAfoos
Alley Art
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courtesy of Deaneal McAfoos
Alley Art 2
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courtesy of Deaneal McAfoos
Alley Art 3
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courtesy of Deaneal McAfoos
Alley Art 4
Six years ago, homeowner Deaneal McAfoos planted a bed of zinnias in the alleyway behind her house, never thinking that the results of a weekend project would catch on with neighbors wanting to beautify their own plot of land.
But as the flowers began to bloom, delighted neighbors followed in her footsteps, adding a kaleidoscope of color down a nondescript alley a few blocks from the Missouri River in Washington, Missouri.
This past summer, the community project took on a new dimension when McAfoos, her husband, Devin Mcfoos, and two neighbors, cleared a swath of poison ivy from a neighbors’ yard, revealing a garage door in disrepair. The peeling paint and exposed wood battered by time made McAfoos want to repaint it. And, perhaps, add a mural.
“But since it wasn’t my garage door, I wasn’t sure the homeowner would let me,” says the 39-year-old artist. “So I experimented by painting a mural on my own garage door first and, sure enough, when my neighbor saw the finished product, asked if I would do the same to hers.”
McAfoos never intended to transform the alley behind her home, but with the help of her neighbors that’s exactly what’s happened along a stretch of Washington and 3rd. To date, five garages have been painted with murals, adding color and cheer to the close knit neighborhood. The murals are the work of McAfoos, whose designs have so far adhered to botanicals and nature scenes that complement the flowers planted in the alley. But McAfoos doesn’t keep to a system when painting the murals. Instead, she envisions the painting and free-hands it on site. “For the most part, residents give me creative freedom but occasionally they will weigh in with requests,” she says.
Washington neighbor Joe Emke requested monarch butterflies on the retaining wall behind his Cape Cod-style house. “I love looking outside when I’m sitting in my kitchen and seeing such a pretty scene in my backyard," he says. “And I love knowing that in winter, when all the flowers are gone and the trees are bare, the mural will still be colorful.”
The murals have become a sort of tourist attraction. On Sundays after church, a line of cars can be seen passing through the alley; during lunch breaks, workers from nearby Mercy Hospital will take a stroll down the alley. “We even had to chip in to buy speed bumps,” says McAfoos. “We have kids here so we don’t want the increase in traffic to become a safety issue.”
For now, the plan is to let the murals come to life naturally. McAfoos is thinking about painting another one but she’s waiting to see where that leads. “We’re just taking it a day at a time,” she says. “The murals were created with our neighborhood's involvement and help and they’ll evolve in the way the neighborhood wants them to. If we get tired of them, getting back to normal is just a coat of paint away.”
