Jill Schramm/MDN Artist Guido van Helten describes the process of developing murals that depict people and place during a discussion at a Minot social and fundraising event Thursday at 10 North Main.
The creative process that begins with capturing the essence of Minot begins to flow for the artist who will transform the downtown grain silos into a public art piece.
Guido van Helten, an Australian who has painted murals on buildings around the world, has been in Minot for about two weeks, taking pictures and talking to residents to get a sense of the community.
“You could say that my work is about the construction of identity and monuments,” van Helten said at a social and fundraising event held in Minot on Thursday for the Union Silos public art project. The project will convert the Minot Farmers Union grain silos located at 318 1st Ave. NE, in North Dakota’s largest piece of public art.
Old grain elevators make a special kind of canvas, van Helten said.
“I see architecture as an identifier of a place and a community. I was a bit obsessed with the architecture of these buildings. I have read a lot about them. It’s a very unique form of architecture that was raised in America,” he said. “So I developed a great respect for them — a lot of respect for what they mean to you. There may be some old people who remember delivering grain to the site, people who see them from the highway and know they are coming home. All these things stress me out a lot. I have to really think about what I’m going to do and what kind of legacy this is going to leave in the city.”
For this reason, although he leaves on Tuesday, his tests will not be done. He has another project in Italy to complete, but plans to return to Minot to continue exploring Minot’s identity by getting a feel for the area during the farming season and summer activities. He said it can take two to three months of photography and research to learn the history of a city.
“I’m really looking for emotion, and that’s the more important and powerful outlet for me. It is more important to create an iconic center that ordinary people can understand,” he said. “You can also visualize it from a distance, from the bridge, from the hill, from all areas. This is part of my training – driving around town looking at different angles. It also becomes an architectural installation. I use the drone. I scale it and measure every surface.
He noted that silos are not flat, but have different curves that can distort the picture, so each must be handled differently.
Van Helten said the final design is not made public because even as he paints, he often makes changes. Computer renderings are also not a good representation of what viewers will ultimately see on the structure, he said.
However, the audience will be able to watch the picture unfold. Van Helten explained that the paint he uses is a mineral paint sourced from a German company that has tremendous longevity.
At this stage, he can’t say how long it might take to paint because every project is different.
From a teenage graffiti artist to a renowned artist in a worldwide mural movement, van Helten has been creating large-scale art around the world for the past few years. It began after his first painting of a silo in a small town in Australia attracted international attention.
Union Silos is part of van Helten’s Monuments project, in which he plans to create one artistic tourism destination in each of the 50 states.
“I really have to think about how the work is going to be received by an outside audience, not just Minot, not just North Dakota, but the audience of my work—the audience in Australia that looks at my work, the audience that might say, ‘Where is Minot and why am I here?” van Helten said. His response when international viewers ask “Why Minot?” is the response of an artist.
“Because look how interesting this place is and look at the contrast and look at the images that I’m capturing in a small town in North Dakota that probably, I would say, 80 percent of my audience might not know about.” he said. “So I want to share that message really passionately, and that’s why I spend a lot of time.”
