Award-winning illustrator is living his dream

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Driving east on 31st Street in midtown Kansas City, Mo., you can't help but smile. On the concrete wall of a plain, single-story building is a large and simple cartoon drawing:

A child's round face with a sideways grin, big eyes and a forehead curl, all topped by a high-arcing Afro.

It's a curious, pleasant surprise — and little more to many passersby. Maybe a random bit of cheery wall art in the urban core.

In fact, the face has a name, Olu. Olu is the star of a newly published storybook, and in the story, Olu is learning about dreams.

The child character is the creation of Kansas Citian Shane W. Evans, an award-winning illustrator who isn't too grown up to talk about dreams. The building, once ramshackle, is his Dream Studio, part gallery, workspace and arts venue for the community.

Evans, 37, knows about dreams, and he knows about patience.

He first dreamed of his own studio when he was 12 years old. His book, "Olu's Dream," released in August, was more than 10 years in the making. It's the first book he has written as well as illustrated.

Evans remembers Olu's origins clearly.

"I knew he'd have an Afro and that curl," said Evans, sitting at a low desk at the center of Dream Studio.

"Superman had that curl, and I've been a Superman fan, for sure. I wanted his eyes to be expressive — big, deep eyes you could jump into."

Life sometimes builds to a moment of departure, a launch. With his Dream Studio in place and Olu on the scene, Evans appears to be at that moment.

A visit to Evans' Dream Studio starts with Sherri White, a "dream team member." White first became acquainted with Evans several years ago when her son Yakini, now 9, fell hard for "Shaq and the Beanstalk and Other Very Tall Tales." Evans collaborated with Shaquille O'Neal on the book of fractured fairy tales.

"We read it three thousand billion times," White said. "I'd say, 'Don't you want to read something else?' The answer was always, No, 'Shaq and the Beanstalk'!"

Just inside the studio, White points to a counter filled with children's books, more than 30 titles illustrated by Evans, including award-winners such as "Osceola: Memories of a Sharecropper's Daughter," honored by the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards.