Kansas Children’s Discovery Center Mural 2025

The Kansas Children’s Discovery Center (KCDC) is an amazing play space in Topeka, Kansas located in the heart of the city in Gage Park. KCDC not only has incredible indoor and outdoor play scapes, but also hosts traveling interactive museum exhibits for children and recently underwent a massive expansion to offer more learning for families and kids in Kansas. I was honored when they asked me to create a 14′ x 40′ mural for their new space.

The request was for a digital mural to be printed on vinyl and for that mural to represent Kansas, essentially creating a “love letter to Kansas.” I responded with a quick “yes, so long as I’m not on the hook for installing it,” because you can’t pay me enough for that kind of stress! Shout out to the installers!

This mural was a project of so much joy. I experimented with new drawing techniques, I took Kansasy things and put my own flair on them, I spent hours thinking about my own interests as a kid, reflecting on how much I enjoyed scavenger hunts and what I could add to create that for families sitting in the dining space next to this big drawing. I could have easily kept working on it as the ideas were never ending. Oh and not to mention I’d never drawn or created anything quite this large!

I made this mural with kids in mind, with the hope that they will look up at this big picture and find all the hidden whimsy and be inspired to dream, to make art, and to create what they want to see in life – that’s what illustration is to me, bringing the excitement and imagination to life.

KCDC is a special place for my family and me personally. It is an adventure center for young minds.

I decided adding dedications to my artwork, so I dedicate this mural to:

To my universe and creative directors of play, Atlas and Arbor. You make the mundane extraordinary with your wonder and curiosity. Your inner compasses are strong. Hold tight to them.

To Karl, my most silly companion and dad to our kids. You light up our lives.

To all caretakers of children who shapeshift into crafty wizards, comedians, chefs, protectors, menders and cuddlers at a moment’s notice and in difficult times. You are the true heroes of the story.

To this home on the range. Where the deer and the antelope play. The ancestral homeland for many nations, including the Kaw (Kanza), Osage, Wichita, Pawnee, Comanche, Kiowa, Apache, and Delaware, whose land we are on today, that we now call Kansas, and the current home to several federally recognized tribes: Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska and the Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska.

Lastly, to KCDC for the compelling play and learning spaces they continue to create for our children and for trusting me with this project. I am incredibly grateful.