Visualizing Hope
By: Jennifer Penate
Updated: May 10, 2012
JOPLIN, MO -- Hope - the feeling that events will turn out for the best.
That's how many residents feel when they see murals like this one around the city. Even at unexpected places like a yogurt shop. Where a painting has an emotional toll on some.
"Amazingly people come in and some people start crying immediately. It just touches them so much," says Orange Leaf Manager Lanette Smith.
"Faith, Hope, Love" is a painting created by Smith and painted by a Springfield artist.
"We didn't just want impressions of things that could be interpreted as hope. We wanted it to be straight images from the tornado that were very helpful," says Smith.
She wants all who see it, to absorb its full meaning.
"The evidences of the faith that they have, and the safety that god gave and hope that there is still positive and still a future and the love they've been surrounded with," says Smith.
Hope also fills one of the hallways in the 9th and 10th grade Joplin High School Campus.
"It's like a symbol that we're going to rebuild and be better," Joplin High School Sophome Samuel Wilcoxen.
The mural was the vision of a group of parents and school officials.
"I wanted there to be some of a historical semblance for people that walk into the new high school to say, 'oh this is what the old joplin high school looked like, this is what happened and this is where they're at now," says JHS Sophomore Principal Matt Harding.
The artwork will be moved to the new campus once it's built.
Meaningful paintings in a yogurt shop, school and of course at street view.
Nita Aquino points out the area she painted on the mural at 15th and main...Organizers invited everyone to help create the masterpiece.
"It's part of our storm, it's part of our history," says Aquino.
Butterfly Effect was set to be painted before the tornado. Shortly after the storm, the mural's main designers changed the theme.
"It was wonderful to bring something beautiful for joplin who had just experienced an awful tragedy to bring hope to people," says Ashley Bilke who helped design the art work.
Alll the paintings came to life thanks to countless volunteers who wanted to lift the spirits of area residents.
