Graffiti painted on fences and the restrooms near the farmers market pavilion in King Jack Park last weekend have been covered up – and in one case it’s quite an improvement.

John Littlefield noticed the graffiti Saturday night as he was returning from celebrating his grandmother’s birthday.

It was so obviously profane that he quickly painted over it with gray paint on his fence and his neighbors.’

He said he’s not opposed to spray art, but was definitely a critic of whoever did the painting on his fence.

“The way I figure, if you’re going to paint my fence give me something cool – or at least not vulgar,” Littlefield says.

When he’s not working, Littlefield is an axe throwing coach at Main Street Axe Company in Joplin. And he creates custom axe handles.

Aside from some doodling, Littlefield denies being an artist. But he has a friend so good at spray paint art that he is hired to paint buildings in Joplin. With some advice from his friend, Littlefield says he thought “I’d give it a shot.”

What to paint was obvious because of the proximity to the market.

As he was thinking of the design, he says, he thought to himself, “‘You can’t just put up the letters, you have to represent it (the market) a little.’” So he added a stalk of wheat and tomato.

He chose a color mix to “give it some pop,” as opposed to being flat.

“I think it came out all right for my first-every graffiti,” he says.

Vandalism is a persistent problem in King Jack Park. Gary Pippin, with the park department, says they have recently had to practically rebuild the interior of the restrooms near the splash pad to repair extensive damage done by vandals.