WATERLOO -- Just days before Friday's unveiling of his 29-by-72-foot mural in downtown Waterloo, Richard C. Thomas picked up his trumpet and headed over to East High School.

"When I got there, the band was playing 'When the Saints Go Marchin' In,' and I told them to put away their music. I started playing and they just took off. I just knew they were going to blow people away with their sound," said the award-winning New Orleans artist.

The band were to act as pied pipers, leading a processional of dignitaries, guests and onlookers from the mural's dedication ceremony at the parking ramp at Lafayette Street, where the mural is visible from East Fourth Street, to Lincoln Park for the season's inaugural Friday'loo event.

Thomas and his wife, Joy, and their family relocated to Waterloo in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, lured by the promise of the large-scale commission. There were family ties, too, with Thomas aunt, Dorothy Turner, and his friendship with Waterloo Center for the Arts executive director Cammie Scully and curator Kent Shankle. Now the Thomases divide their time between New Orleans and Waterloo.

The mural, "Keki Me Si Metose Neniwa -- We the People," is a recognition of immigrants who settled in Waterloo, beginning with native Americans and continuing to present-day Bosnian and Hispanic populations. The English translation for the Mesquaki phrase, "Keki Me Si Metose Neniwa" is "We are all one people," and Thomas spent nearly a year researching the city's immigrant history in museums, archives and libraries, as listening as "old-timers" and long-time residents told their stories.

"I found a wonderful spirit alive in Waterloo. It's valuable and important to look at a community's history and how it has evolved. I see visible lines of separation and some lines that aren't so visible. People talk about diversity and that's great, but it also separates us. For me, at the end of the day, we all are the same. We've all struggled, we've all suffered, but we are all sewn together into a single garment -- our neighborhoods, communities, states and country. We're a family, and I wanted the mural to be a kind of family snapshot," Thomas explained.

The piece began as a photographic montage or collage of images, such as animals, modes of transportation, agriculture, architecture, industry and people carrying bags or bundles of belongings. "I can identify with what that's like because when Katrina hit, we were told to take just one bag, one bag of everything we had in the world -- I packed my trumpet and my laptop computer on top of that and then clothing," he recalls, laughing.

In a sense, Thomas wanted his mural to be a modern-day American Gothic for the community -- "these people stare right back at you, a determined look," as in Grant Wood's famous painting. "It's the kind of look of people who have purpose. There also are lots of women, mothers. I'm married to a Midwestern woman, and she's strong. The South, where I come from, has strong women, but its demure. Women here can fend themselves," he said, smiling.

When the collage was complete, he had it scanned, enlarged and printed on canvas. Then he began painting the images, adding details and elements and linking together the span of figures and history -- "the lifeblood of the piece began to flow," Thomas noted. "When I paint, the original source disappears. Using technology makes the process easier because I didn't have to draw it all out first. There's a kind of layering or masking that happens in the piece."

The colors are cool -- lots of greens, blues and purples with strokes of soft red.

Thomas describes his style of painting as "visual jazz," a notion of "listening" with the eyes through color, images and movement in his paintings. His work can be found in corporate collections, including the House of Blues, Disney, Pizza Hut and Ford Motor Co. He has been commissioned to create portraits of such notables as Louis Armstrong and Mahalia Jackson, and he serves on the board for New Orleans' African American Museum.

In 1989, he painted the well-known image of Fats Domino for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Posters of the colorful artwork broke all records for sales then, and is still sought after by collectors. One collector recently paid $6,000 for a poster.

While Richard continues to be involved in New Orleans projects like the jazz festival and is rebuilding his presence there, the Thomases consider their home base the property at 215 W. Fifth St., which they have converted into a gallery-studio. An open house reception took place Saturday.

Eventually, the couple plan to open a restaurant, Oh Taste and See, at the location featuring Cajun, Creole and soul food.