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Art and design by Jim LePage

"God is Love" Mural for Union Gospel Mission

Last year I had the pleasure of working with Union Gospel Mission (UGM) in St. Paul, MN. Since 1902, UGM has offered help for the homeless, poor and addicted in the Minneapolis / St. Paul area through meals, shelter, recovery, education and job training programs. In other words, they do really awesome stuff.

Since their early days, "God is love" has been a highly influential and guiding verse for UGM. I was asked to do a modern take on the verse that also referenced their past. I was provided with some great historic photos of different UGM buildings and events over the past 115 years and paired those with a modern custom type treatment of "God is love." The final mural was printed at 8x8' and placed in their chapel (photos below). The room is not only used for chapel service 365 days a year but is also an emergency shelter and serves as a bedroom for 52 guys every night of the year.

It's hard to put into words how fun and rewarding it is to do this type of work with an organization whose mission is to serve the homeless, poor and addicted. Absolutely incredible. Big thanks to David Morrow at UGM for reaching out to me and trusting me with this project.

* This project renewed my interest in the verse "God is love" and I ended up creating several other custom type versions of the verse.


Final mural in the chapel

Four historic UGM images used in the final mural