Established at Saint Vincent College in 2003 it serves as a national and international resource for addressing emerging issues affecting children and families. The photo to the left shows the  Center's new building nearing completion in May 2008. Opening to the public in the fall of 2008, the building includes state of the art facilities for housing the complete archives of the late Fred Rogers, creator of the well known  TV show "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood".

 www.fredrogerscenter.org

Inside the main entrance of this impressive center the Upsidedown Mural rises two stories. This project, based on pen and ink drawings created by Roman Verostko in the early 1970’s, draws on the same core of whimsical drawings he presents in his Upsidedown Book.

For the rationale & artistic motives underlying the images in this project see:  wim-rationale.htm 

The original drawings: Most of the originals were drawn with pen and ink in a 9" by 12" format on Strathmore Bristol 500. Other drawing series such as a 1970's Christmas card series varied in size.  The original drawing for the  group with blasting horns, top center unit on the image to the left, measures 40" in length. Conceived as a mural for a school of music the original drawing now hangs in the executive offices of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Lower and upper units vary in sizes approaching 4 ft by 8 ft.each. Each unit was printed from a digital file using carbon based inks on rag paper. The prints were hot mounted with UV filter plexi over a 1/8"  Sintra support. All scanning, digital editing, and composing was done by the artist in his home studio.