Excelsior Springs, Mo. (June 19, 2025) – It’s time to take out our flip-phone time machines and dial to downtown Excelsior Springs, where four new doors have appeared, but instead of opening into businesses, they open into the dreamlike imagination of local artist Mark Walter.
The new series of Mini Murals was officially unveiled on Thursday during a walking tour hosted by the Downtown Excelsior Partnership (DEP). It took viewers through four unique art installations scattered across the downtown district.
“They’re like doorways to another world,” Walter said. “That’s what made the scale work. At four feet by eight feet, it’s not a typical mural size. But I started thinking of them like doors, just cracked open enough to show you something else. A little mystery. A little wonder.”
The mini mural project was first proposed nearly two years ago. According to Walter, the city was looking for a way to bring more public art to Excelsior Springs, something lighthearted and unexpected. He provided sketches, and as all things take time, he gradually found himself commissioned to paint the murals.
City staff and local officials were hands-on in the installation process. The paintings were all created in Walter’s studio, then photographed at high resolution and printed on weatherproof metal sheets that could be safely hung on historic buildings. According to Walter, these murals blend storytelling, surrealism, nostalgia, and a bit of childhood naïveté. Though varied in theme, each piece draws on either personal history or a playfully imagined alternate reality.
A Flip Phone Time Machine
Walter doesn’t want viewers to simply admire his murals, but to feel inspired to create their own interpretations. At the unveiling, he explained that his process isn’t about control or clarity. It’s about curiosity.
“Have you ever had a really vivid dream? One where you wake up and almost want to wake your spouse to tell them about it? That’s what this is like for me. Imaginary art is like dreaming with your eyes open.”
Rather than explain each piece outright, Walter posed two questions to his audience: What do you notice? What do you wonder?
Instead of telling viewers what the artwork means, which he explained can be “kind of boring,” he asked the crowd for their thoughts first. “I’ve created the art, but you get to interpret the dream.”
Please Remove Shoes
218 South Street
This mural, immediately welcoming viewers to the moon, is reminiscent of Walter’s childhood in the 1960s. An astronaut is shown with a broom and dustpan cleaning up dusty footprints, while Earth hangs in the background. Propped on the door is a sign reading “Please Remove Shoes.” Much like a dream, there was a unique, out-of-place feature: a turtle and a hare sitting next to one another atop the moon. And, finally, a small easter egg for Excelsior Springs: the reflection of his helmet features the city’s skyline, alongside figures representing the viewer looking at the mural.
For Walter, it’s a “weird compression” of growing up in the 1960s, with flashes of his mother’s no-shoes rules, nighttime sky watching, and the excitement of the space race.
Watch Your Step
103 North Main (across from Atlas Saloon)
WWI-era biplanes barrel through the sky as bubbles shoot from guns, and a tiny fairy flutters midair beside the open door. A white sign hangs at the top: “Watch Your Step.”
The scene looks almost dangerous, until you realize the bullets emerging from the soldier’s gun have turned into bubbles, and the fairy is in no distress at all. In fact, she is the culprit behind the more gentle outcome of pulling the trigger.
“I loved biplanes as a kid,” Walter said. “I used to build model planes and hang them from my bedroom ceiling with thread. Then I’d lie in bed, chew up tissues, and with a straw shoot spitballs at them. So I took that memory,” he added, “and made it playful. Instead of war, what if it was a game?”
The mural takes a boyhood fascination with battle and transforms it into something playful and dreamlike, soaring straight out of his imagination.
Don’t Feed Rex
259 Broadway (Wine and Shine tasting room)
In this mural, a drooling, yellow-eyed prehistoric dinosaur crouches just behind a scratched door. A sign warns, “Don’t Feed Rex.” A ball of red yarn lies by a large bone, while a clawed paw slips into view.
“Rex is every pet I ever had rolled into one,” Walter laughed. “He’s part dinosaur, part childhood mutt. I wanted to capture that wild, unpredictable energy pets have, especially in a kid’s mind.”
Walter explained that, while the concept was simple, he hoped this mural would bring childlike joy to viewers, especially those with a love for pets.
Catfish Sanctuary
215 East Broadway, near the Hall of Waters lawn
This scene shows cool-toned waters with sunlight dipping in, colorful fish gliding past, a young boy snorkeling, and a lone cat perched oddly at the center. It’s playful and slightly ironic, with the cat etching his own name into the door to include himself in the protected sanctuary.
“If I was going to make a wish—to time travel somewhere, it would’ve been to go where there’s water,” Walter said. “I didn’t learn to swim until I was eleven.”
The mural’s title, Catfish Sanctuary, started as a joke, “the wires kind of got crossed,” he said, but ended up becoming one of the most personally resonant pieces in the series.
“Being a landlocked Midwesterner, I don’t know much about fish,” Walter admitted. “So I just said, ‘catfish sanctuary.’ Then, somehow, this cat showed up. It didn’t make sense, but it worked. That’s kind of how dreams happen, too.”
Like the best dreams, these murals don’t offer neat resolutions or obvious morals. Instead, they invite you to linger, to notice, and to wonder. Each panel is a playful distortion of memories never actually made, yet still there, an echo from childhood made visible —a scene from a story you might have dreamed yourself. Whether you see an astronaut sweeping moon dust, a cat rewriting sanctuary rules, or fairies turning bullets into bubbles, you’re not just looking at art, you’re stepping into it.
So go ahead, take off your shoes, watch your step, don’t feed Rex, and try not to startle the catfish. Mark Walter’s doors may only stand eight feet tall, but they’re wide open for anyone willing to follow imagination where it will lead you.
Learn more about the artist and view additional work, sign up for his newsletter, and inquire about commissions by visiting markdouglaswalter.com.
More photos from the event and mural details are available at VisitExcelsior.com.
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