JOPLIN — Zane Livengood works part time at the state Welcome Center on Interstate 44.
When he learned that a new mural was being created by an artist who needed license plates as a thematic backdrop for the project, he submitted four.
He did not know they would be used. The artist did not know the story behind the license plates Livengood submitted.
On Dec. 18, Livengood got his first look at the mural.
"I was very, very impressed," he said. "I had no idea it would be something like that. It's a great idea with the pictures of things from our area and the license plates. I was thrilled by it."
But for Livengood, the mural features something that has touched him deeply.
A personalized plate with his name on it — ZANE L — appears nearly side by side with another plate he gave to the artist. It reads DORA ZL.
"The DORA ZL is my wife who passed away three years ago," he said. "I see the mural as a memorial to her. That's just one of the reasons I was very impressed with it."
Matt Dehaemers, the Kansas City artist who created the mural, said, "I had no idea that DORA ZL was ZANE L's wife who had passed away when I put them up almost side by side."
Dehaemers was told about the connection by Gary Wofford, director of the center, when the mural's 28 panels were put into place with assistance from Crossland Construction Co.
"We could not believe it when we saw it," Wofford said.
Wofford was with Livengood when he saw the mural for the first time.
"He did not notice the plates being so close together at first," Wofford said. "Tears welled up in his eyes when we pointed it out to him. It was touching."
The public art, which depicts scenes and themes from Southwest Missouri, is generating some buzz at the Welcome Center.
"People are asking questions about it," Wofford said. "What Matt has done with a gray wall is amazing. We're getting a lot of compliments."
When Dehaemers became a finalist for the project, his research led him to the digital archive of vintage postcards from around the area that are featured on the Joplin Public Library's Web site.
"The postcards with the big graphic letters represent a certain era," he said. "Inside the lettering are all of these historical places with local significance. They are embedded in the letters themselves. That was the starting point for going into the Ozarks, driving in the car and the license-plate game.
"What you see on the wall is somewhat of a postcard itself," he said. "I tried to be playful about it, featuring certain histories and people of the Joplin area, and at the same time referencing highways and iconic signs that we see every day. I tried to highlight those ordinary things as something significant."
The mural depicts scenes from the Spook Light, Route 66, artist Thomas Hart Benton, astronaut Janet Kavandi, outlaw Clyde Barrow, the castle at Redings Mill, poet Langston Hughes, Red Oak II, the natural beauty of the Ozarks, naturalist Marlin Perkins, Grand Falls and the area's history of mining.
"The idea is that we are passing through, but that we should be open to the idea of detours," Dehaemers said. "I'm hoping that people will come in and see things in and around the area they might be interested in.
"It invites one to ask questions. What does all this stuff mean? Maybe they will take off from the beaten path, take a slight detour if you will, and get sidetracked in a positive way. I hope it encourages them to see a local area they might otherwise have skipped over."
The license plates, which total roughly 500, were all donated. Many of them are from the Joplin area.
"People are coming into the Welcome Center, and they're excited to see what was once their license plate in the mural," Dehaemers said. "All 50 states are represented."
The first plate in the upper left corner is from Delaware, the first state. The oldest is a 1966 plate from Alaska. One person submitted Missouri personalized plates from 1984 that feature the name B.J. Rice. Both plates were used.
Dehaemer's concept for the mural was one of 68 submissions from across the country, said Wendy Brunner-Lewis, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Transportation office in Joplin. "He had a budget of $30,000, which came from Transportation Enhancement Funds from the Federal Highway Administration," she said.
The mural was created in three segments in Dehaemers' studio in Kansas City. He saw the entire mural for the first time when it was pieced together this week.
"After we put it up, seven or eight university students from all different states came into the center," Dehaemers said. "They went looking for their state's license plates. They took their picture next to their plates."
"What's nice after you get something like this up is to stand back and watch people do what they do with it. You see how they see it."
That's one thing Livengood hopes to experience as well.
"I'm a part-time employee at the center," he said. "What will be an interesting thing for me is what the tourists will comment about. I hope they know that they have easy access to all of the things that are pictured. I know I'm going back with my camera to get some pictures."