By Joshua Phelps
The Scene staff
Buying property in St. Louis without having to pay real money is now possible, thanks to a giant Monopoly-inspired board game made by a Forest Park student.
Art major Kenya Mitchell, 28, created “Kenopoly” for her Design III class. It’s being displayed between the elevator and stairs on the fourth floor of F Tower.
“I wanted to do Monopoly with a twist,” Mitchell said. “Instead of having the Monopoly man on there, I used my Bitmoji.”
Bitmojis are cartoonish versions of people that can be designed through an app from the company Bitstrips.
The class project involved creating soft sculptures.
“Soft sculptures are 3D installations,” said art adjunct Mario Carlos, who teaches Design III. “(They are) composed of cloth, paper, foam, rubber, fibers or any materials that are non-rigid.”
Mitchell’s game looks like a fabric pillow that measures 4½ by 4½ feet. Words and images are either painted on or made of felt. There are two giant dice.
“It’s an amazing piece,” Carlos said. “She worked hard on that.”
St. Louis locations on the Kenopoly board range from Page Boulevard and Flad Avenue to the Central West End and Lafayette Square.
Some properties represent places that Mitchell has lived. That includes the old Darst-Webbe public housing project and Clinton-Peabody apartments.
“The first one (the house next to the ‘Go’ box) is the first housing complex we were living in until it got torn down,” Mitchell said. “Then we moved into the next one, which is right next do it.”
To make the game, Mitchell bought about 12 yards of fabric and 10 pounds of stuffing. Her friends helped her paint on the words.
The project took Mitchell about a month to complete.
“It was a lot of money,” she said. “I came out about a good $150.”
The game includes a pocket full of play money for purchasing properties and cards giving other instructions.
Mitchell always wanted to play Monopoly as a girl, but her grandmother was a pastor and wouldn’t allow it. She thought games that involved rolling dice amounted to gambling.
As Mitchell got older, her grandmother changed her mind and let her play.
“I thought it was pretty fun and neat,” Mitchell said. “Everyone loves Monopoly. It was one of the biggest known board games.”
Mitchell went with a Monopoly-inspired game for her class project after learning that her friend was going to create a Tetris-inspired game.
Many students, faculty and staff have done double-takes when walking by the unusual piece of artwork in F Tower in the past couple of weeks.
“I think it’s very interesting,” said photography major Kurstin Mecey, 27. “It looks like it tells a lot about the artist’s life, and I think she did a really good job on it.”
Kenopoly will be on display at Forest Park through May 11. After that, Mitchell plans to take it home and play it with friends and family.
“If anyone wants personalized boards, they can contact me on Instagram or Facebook,” said Mitchell, noting her pages can be found by searching for “Pure Artistry By.Kenya.”