We finally got to it this summer – a mural project we had been talking about for over 3 years. The nice people of Alexandria, MN, invited me to create a community mural project for them. Our conversations began when they were still exploring locations, funding and partners, so it was a long process. The pandemic hit in the middle of our talks, moving all of our meetings to Zoom. It’s a good thing we liked each other!

Joanna Hvezda (Real Estate by Jo) was gracious enough to offer up a storage building she owned for the mural. It is a truly lovely location across the street from Big Ole Park and Lake Agnes. It is a HUGE wall; about 124′ long by 14′ tall, so it makes it the biggest square footage I’ve ever worked on, and that’s saying something.

Because we had talked for so long, I had the chance to gather descriptions and stories about the community that helped me craft a concept for the mural image. Everything I heard seemed to be centered on water. The seasons, spending time with family, the natural environment, the history of the area, how the community gathered, even the arts – all of it seemed oriented to water.

First, we had to tape the grid onto the wall – a big undertaking for a wall this big. Alexandria artist, Naomi Bjorkland, was my teammate in this effort, and she was an instant pro on the scissor lift! Thank you, Noni! Then, I made color selections at Sherwin Williams, who donated the paint for the project. On every trip north, I packed my car full of supplies to make the work of painting a community mural easy, accessible and enjoyable for the folks of Alexandria.

There was a familiar kind of hum that began once the community showed up to paint; folks wanting to get involved, asking about the process, chatting with each other. It’s magic, that hum.

It was such a wonderful experience! The kids loved making their contributions to the mural; the adults left their perfectionism behind and painted all kinds of textures, lines and shapes. For those who like numbers, it took us 18hrs over 6 days to paint 278 squares that were 2.5′ x 2.5′ in dimension, using almost 9 gallons of blue paint in 3 shades. People chatted, encouraged each other and came back multiple times to watch the progress. During the community-paint time, someone got engaged, workmates left the office to paint together, we were interviewed by the media (then the media came back later to paint a square) and no one got hurt. It was a success on all counts! This is what it looked like on almost the last day:

Because it is difficult to get a picture of the whole image, here is a video from end to end:

So many thanks to the two women who held on through everything to make this project happen: Mimi Seykora and Sandy Susag. These women are an asset to their community and are so much fun to work with! Cheers, ladies!

Thank you to my new artist friends, Noni and Chalsey! Thanks to Lynn, who kept everything organized. Thanks to Bill, who brought the sass and the scissor lift. Thanks to Jo and Emma, who always kept the key for me. Thanks to sister Miriam, who got me into this process way back when. Cheers, Alexandria!