Anyone who drives through the town of Niangua, MO, on a regular basis probably noticed the massive mural going up over the last month. While it looked like it only took a few weeks to get it up, the planning of the mural was as detailed as the painting itself.
“I think it was like 5 or 6 years ago that I stopped by the antique store,” reflected Samantha Cox, owner and traveling muralist of Art by Samantha Cox. “They were clearing it out. People were coming in, and we went and looked around to buy a few treasures, then they (the owners-Judy and Pete Aswald) mentioned the plans for the lot there.”
The antique store, a historic building beloved by the entire town of Niangua, was scheduled to be demolished.
“Unfortunately, the building-even though it’s historic and everyone loved it, it was so special; it was falling apart. When Judy and Pete acquired it, they tried to save it-there was no way to save it,” Cox explained. “We got to talking, and she (Judy) wanted to do a mural, and she was like, ‘You’re a muralist! Let’s do something’...since then we’ve been coordinating this. It’s taken so long to finally bring it to fruition.”
It took years of planning. Multiple coffee dates where Judy and Samantha sat down together to talk about the plans for the murals and the details they wanted. Details that included: Route 66, the building itself-the antique store, the year the town was established, the Missouri flag, a penny, the old dentist office, and of course Gavin’s name.
“So many people stopped by and were honking at me; they came out and talked with me…” reflected Cox. “And then Gavin's name…I watched him. In the beginning, as soon as the smokestack was painted, he stopped by…he said, “it’s for me, it’s my train.”
“...The ladies at Hannah’s were like, you should put his name on there. ' At the last minute I asked Judy, and Judy was like, ‘You must put his name on there, you must. ’,” laughed Cox.
The mural itself is a gift from Judy to the town as a way to try and give back.
“I grew up in a town as small as Niangua. When we first went through on the way to our new home, I felt a connection to Niangua,” reflected Judy who very much wanted to keep the spotlight on the mural and not herself. “We had to tear down the Antique store, and we were very sad to do it…We had three different structural engineers come out, and all three said it couldn’t be saved. So we thought a mural with the antique store, the train, and all the extra gems Samantha added would be fitting for the spot where the store used to be!”
The painting itself took several weeks-longer than Cox had anticipated. The rain and then the heat pushed the project out longer, and then Cox kept thinking of little things to add. However, Cox shared that her time in Niangua was welcomed.
“It’s the most detailed mural I’ve ever done,” shared Cox. “Judy and I would look at photos of the old building and be like, let's add a little more and a little more-it turned out to be so detailed, and it’s perfect. I love it.”
And Gavin, the local boy who watches the trains go through every day, loves it too.
“Everywhere we go, he asks people, ‘Have you seen my Train painting?’ He is promoting big time,” shared his mom, Amy Brown.
“I love all of my work…I have clients dear to my heart-but this one particularly…the love that I got from people stopping by, the stories that they would tell me-pulling off the road out of their way just to come and wave and say I’m doing a good job,” Cox shared with a laugh and smile. “It made it more special for me, even though I was already in love with doing it.”
To see the mural in person, you can head into Niangua, and it’s right across the road from Hannah’s. If you’d like your own mural painted, you can contact Samantha Cox at artbysamanthacox@gmail.com or on her website at artbysamanthacox.com.
