RIVERSIDE, Mo. (KCTV) – A Northland artist who donated four large soccer murals to a World Cup watch party series says one of them ended up on the side of Interstate 35 — and no one told him.
Jeff Parson, of Fearless Jack Rabbit Art, spent a month building four “Legends of Soccer” murals — depicting Messi, Ronaldo, Beckham, and Pelé — and donated all of them to Go North KC, a Clay and Platte County organization that hosted watch parties across the Northland during the six-week World Cup run.
“I did these mobile art displays for Go North KC, which is Clay and Platte County, and they were sponsoring watch parties for the six weeks that the World Cup was here,” Parson said. “And I did it for free because I wanted to do something that would celebrate, elevate our community. Something that we could all, you know, like photo ops, where we could all come together.”
Mural fell off truck on I-35
After the final watch party Saturday night in North Kansas City, Go North KC hired a third-party vendor to haul all four murals back to a warehouse. The vendor left with four. It arrived with three.
The Pelé mural fell off the truck somewhere on I-35 and sat there for days. A follower spotted it and tipped off Parson, who then drove to the highway to see it himself.
“I got a message early in the morning — no, your artwork is literally blown apart on the highway,” Parson said. “So I drove down the highway, and I saw this. And it was a gut punch.”…