(upbeat music) - [Interviewer] It was during the late 1990s that I first encountered the unique hand-painted signs of Jasper "Mississippi" Travis, also known as the Brush Master.

- [Jasper] Some people call me the Brush Master.

- Until recently, the Brush Master was totally unaware of my interest in his work.

I was out taking pictures and you were there and you were kind of messing with me a little bit.

- He's like, "Do you know the artist that painted this?"

I'm like, "Yeah, I know him."

And he's like, "Oh, wow.

Can you introduce me?"

- [Interviewer] The visual landscape of my hometown was dominated by commercially manufactured signs bearing dull corporate logos.

It felt generic, cold and lifeless.

- Manufacture signs, they just to the point, and that's it.

They don't have any abnormalities.

It gives a character.

- [Interviewer] The Brush Master signs were different.

The colors were bold.

The use of space was unorthodox.

His signs were filled with eccentric details that bore the mark of human touch.

But this one is still here, though it is disappearing.

Mississippi did a lot of beauty salons, barber shops, and these silhouettes became one of the trademark ways that I would identify his work.

No one paints a silhouette like the Brush Master, as you can see.

Born and raised and Mound Bayou, Mississippi, the Brush Master began painting and drawing while caring for his mother.

- It was a little different from Mayberry, but it was still rural.

- [Interviewer] She was an artist and encouraged her son to pursue art.

- I had to do, you know, hold her hand, then she started telling me, I want this or I want that drawn, and I started drawing and I liked it.

- [Interviewer] Later, life took Mississippi to Chicago where he began painting in and on neighborhoods.

His mastery of the brush work business would soon lead to Indianapolis.

- I painted this place called Frog's, Frog Records on college, and the other one's 38th Street Men's Club and it wasn't even on 38th Street, but that was the name of it.

I remember, those were the first.

- [Interviewer] The 38th Street Men Club.

The club was located at 18th Street in College Avenue, 20 blocks south of 38th.

The idiosyncrasies of the sign and the club's location brightened my day every time I passed by until one day when it just disappeared.

A few months later, I spotted the sign, propped up against the wall on a small building, and on that day I took my first photo of a Brush Master sign.

For the next year I traveled through big and small neighborhoods across the city, photographing his work, from Harville to Mapleton, Fall Creek, from Keystone Avenue to Martindale, Brightwood.

For almost 20 years these photos gathered dust in an old shoebox in my bedroom closet.

At the peak of his activity the Brush Master's work covered an enormous stretch of the Indianapolis landscape.

- I knew I had to make a living some kind of way so I got up and did just grind.

Every time I was painting one place four or five other people would ask me, "Hey, can you do this for me?

Can you do that for me?"

And I'm like, I was ready for that, you know, because it was basically supporting myself.

- [Interviewer] Around 2016, I started sharing the photos on social media in hopes of connecting with the Brush Master himself, and I discovered that I wasn't the only one who appreciated his work.

My social media posts sharing his art went viral.

That eventually led me to the Brush Master's home.

How are you?

Nice to see you.

- How you doing?

It's good to see you.

- You too.

We were talking about bringing you a cake -- - A cake?

- But I don't know if you eat sweets or what.

There were abnormalities in your work.

Is that intentional?

Do you know that?

- Sometimes.

Sometimes it is.

- [Interviewer] You see the use of quotes.

Mac is not in quotes, but cheese is in quotes.

- We call it the hood.

They have to have varieties of business in one place because, you know, of survival.

- [Interviewer] He does want to include messages of peace and social justice in his work.

This neighborhood has been plagued by violence.

Obviously it says "none violence juice" on the bottle and that's one of the things that makes his work so appealing is that there are eccentricities in the spelling and in the lettering.

It has that handmade element.

- To be something, you know, that's what I wanted to promote.

- [Interviewer] Despite his rising fame in Indianapolis the Brush Master's work is becoming scarce in the city.

The rapid spread of gentrification throughout Indianapolis has erased much of Mississippi's art.

When new developments go up, the Brush Master's work comes down.

- The world is going to change anyway and I just have to change with it.

My mom told me, keep doing what I do.

- [Interviewer] In my eyes, the Brush Master has become a modern day John Henry, one man with a brush taking on an entire industry of mass-produced machine-printed signs, one wall at a time.

- As long as I'm living, then I'm going to always paint.

- For more stories, go to wfyi.org/acrossindiana.