In the city of River Oaks, a mural is being created on the side of a restaurant that is slowly giving the town a little more color.
Fort Worth artist Trista Morris is using the side of Josefina’s Mexican Cuisine in River Oaks as her canvas to create something the community will be proud of.
The mural is “Wizard of Oz” themed. It features the Tin Man, a symbol of the military community that helped build River Oaks, the city of Fort Worth as “Oz,” the shining city in the background linked by the Trinity River, and of course, all of the other characters are featured in the mural: The Scarecrow, Toto, Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion.
You’ll be able to see it driving up the strip of River Oaks Boulevard right next to the coffee shop Boulevard Brew, where Morris still works.
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But why The Wizard of Oz theme? Morris says city leaders have a collective love for The Wizard of Oz.
“As I drove around town, I was looking around, and I’m like, we’ve got Castleberry Lions, we’ve got the military community right up the road, we’ve got the railroad, and I started seeing all these little parallels between the Wizard of Oz and River Oaks,” said Morris. “I was like, 'OK, so the Tin Man can represent the military community, and if you look at the Tin Man in the sketch, he’s got a heart on the front of his chest. It’s going to be a purple heart just to represent the military community that built it and the working-class people who built that area.”
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That’s just one of the elements that she says will represent the small city in the mural. The mural was approved by the River Oaks City Council. With the help of some of her artistic friends, Morris is about two weeks out from finishing.
To stay up to date on Morris's projects, visit her website and follow her on Instagram and Facebook.
