The Moth Mural was commissioned by the owners of Joplin Printing. The TANK, a volunteer group of artists, friends, and lovers of public art decided to pay homage to language and communication on this project. They wanted to honor the power of the written word. The first mural, which runs parallel with 2nd street is a stylized representation of the inner workings or mechanics of the printing press. The black and red wires representing the positive and negative poles of power, therefore, the positives and negatives of the very words they produce. As the viewer rounds the corner, those same wires twist and converge and end at the depicted lightbulb. Powered by words. The moth is a symbol of all that is drawn toward that light created by language.