Repairs to Jefferson City's Roscoe Enloe American Legion Post 5 affected how the mural on the south side of the building looked, so the organization decided to replace it.
Dee Dee Mehmert-Cryderman, a member of the post's renovation committee, said the previous mural, which was completed by high school students, had to be updated.
The legion put out the word it wanted a new piece of art that features a waving flag and inscription containing the Pledge of Allegiance.
And the folks at State Technical College of Missouri in Linn let the local American Legion know they had just the artist for the job, Mehmert-Cryderman said.
Ray Harvey completed a similar mural featuring a U.S. flag at the college this past spring, she said.
"It just reaches out to you," Mehmert-Cryderman said. "So my husband and I took a trip - we got on our motorcycles one morning and went to Hannibal."
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Harvey had just completed another large mural at the Mississippi River town. The 71-by-48-foot mural depicts images from Hannibal's past. Among them are images of Mark Twain, Molly Brown, an eagle and a steamboat.
The New Haven artist is just a good fit for the Jefferson City post's mural, Mehmert-Cryderman said.
Harvey arrived in Jefferson City on Monday and immediately began work on the new mural, she said. He should be done by the end of next week.
Harvey said he hopes to continue a series of patriotic images he calls "Hero Nation." The images are the "biggest, largest, most beautiful American flags" he can paint, Harvey said.
"The whole country was founded and exists because of heroes," he said. "And that's pretty much all of us. This country wasn't founded by people sitting on a couch. It was founded by people taking risks and working and achieving and being a success."
All workers are essential to the country, he continued.
The mural at the American Legion hall on Tanner Bridge Road is 36 feet long and 24 feet wide. It should take seven to eight days to complete, Harvey said.
Harvey said he has painted more than 500 murals, and about half a dozen of them have been flags.
"I've painted murals all over the Midwest," he said. "Dozens and dozens of them are in St. Louis. This is all I do."