Minneapolis Foundation Centennial Street Painting

THIS IS GOING TO BE A GREAT TIME.  LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING STARTED NEXT MONDAY.  HERE IS THE INFORMATION FOR THE STREET PAINTING PROJECT AT THE IDS CRYSTAL COURT.  

Here is the press release for the EVent:
_______________________________________________________________

EVENT NAME: THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION KICKS OFF CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION WITH MASSIVE STREET PAINTING IN CRYSTAL COURT

Date: Apr 6, 2015
Start Time: 12:30 pm
End Time: Tues, April 7, 2015 08:00 pm
Event Type: Arts & Entertainment
Cost: Free
Contact Person: Brendan Kearin
Contact Phone: (612) 598-7667
Address: IDS Center Crystal Court 80 S 8th St Minneapolis, MN
Contact Email: Brendan@mcfarlandcomm.net

Details:

The Minneapolis Foundation Kicks Off Centennial Celebration
with Massive Street Painting in Crystal Court 

Award-winning Artist to Spend Two Days Creating 3D Vision of City’s Future to Commemorate
Foundation’s 100th Anniversary
WHAT: In a live art marathon that will kick off The Minneapolis Foundation’s 100th anniversary, award-winning artist Shawn McCann will spend two days creating a large-scale, indoor street painting depicting his vision of the future of Minneapolis. McCann’s image will feature an optical illusion to create a 3D effect when it’s viewed from a certain vantage point. The piece will remain on display on the floor of the Crystal Court for just a few days, creating a temporary “must see” for Twin Cities residents.
WHERE: The Crystal Court of the IDS Center, 80 South Eighth Street, Minneapolis
WHEN: The Minneapolis Foundation will host a press conference at 12:30 p.m. on Monday, April 6, as McCann begins work on the street painting. Foundation President and CEO Sandra Vargas and Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges will deliver remarks during the event. McCann will work on the piece throughout the day and evening on April 6 and complete it on April 7. The street art will remain on display in the Crystal Court until the end of business day on Friday, April 10.
WHY: The Minneapolis Foundation, which is housed in the IDS Center, commissioned the 3D street painting to kick off a season of community events celebrating its Centennial. The Foundation was established in 1915 to enable residents from across the community to pool their charitable giving for greater impact. One of the first community foundations in the world, The Minneapolis Foundation was a pioneer in a philanthropic movement that now includes more than 1,800 place-based foundations worldwide. By the end of 2015, the Foundation will have granted an estimated lifetime total of $850 million to improve the lives of Minnesotans and people around the world. Learn more about the Foundation’s history and upcoming Centennial events at www.mpls100.org and in the enclosed press release.
WHO: Shawn McCann is a Twin Cities-based artist whose work encompasses street painting, murals, fine art, children’s books, installation art and commercial illustration. Learn more about his work at www.shawnmccann.com.
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Robbinsdale Mural is complete

It was an honor to have worked on the Robbinsdale mural over the course of September.  The fact that this is one that is my back yard is even better.  Special thanks to Lisa Botkin and Laurie Haycraft for the added help!  Here are the final pictures.  Also a huge thanks to Brett at the Robbinsdale Sherwin Williams who were kind enough to donate the paint for this project!  You guys rock!!!!!

Wahpeton, ND Mural

Well, I have officially worked on the largest mural I have completed to date!  This mammoth project was 2 years in the making and with partial funding from the National Endowment for the Arts "Our Town" grant and the remaining from the City of Wahpeton and their beautification fund, this 135ft long 35ft tall mural was completed a matter of 5 short weeks.  I couldn't have done it without Lise Erdrich and Circle of Nations School for helping secure the grant, the city and also my assistants, Elaine Klocke, Caleb Schmidt, Olivia Schmidt, Sam Klocke and even my mother Karen for helping create this lasting piece in my hometown.  It was such a great time creating the piece and really hope that the community enjoys it for years to come!

Eden Prairie 4th of July Street Painting

July 4th this year was a blast as it was celebrated creating a 3D street painting for the City of Eden Prairie celebration at Round Lake.  From July 2-4th, a 3D likeness of Nessi was created to give a fun photo op for kids and adults alike!

Worthington Mural for the 2014 International Windsurfing Championships

The start of the mural summer kicked off this year with a great project in Worthington, MN for the 2014 Windsurfing and Unvarnished Festival.  This year it was the National Championships and it was a great time throughout the entire 9 days I was there.  Thanks to Gail Holinka, the VFW, and a grant thru the SMAC Arts in Legacy grant, this is what was able to be created.  Also thanks to Jasmine for helping out!

Art in Bloom street painting 2014

Well, it is always better late than never, so I will be updating my blog here with some recent projects. This first one was a fun street painting I did for the Art in Bloom Friends kids day at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.  This is a creation from the famed children's book "Mr. Bumble", original book by Kim and Doug Kennedy.    Had lots of fun creating this and the kids creating next to me was a blast as well.  Look forward to the next one next year!

Matisse Mural at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts

After a busy last few months, it is good to get a post up finally.  I have been working on a number of different projects and am looking forward to sharing more about those soon.  In the meantime, here are the images from the completed Matisse Mural I did at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts for the new Matisse show that opened this last weekend.  It was a blast working on it and coming up with an image that was a mashup of some of his pieces.  Here is the completed mural which was 12ft tall by 25 ft in width.

Another fun element of the Matisse show was creating a fun photo opportunity featuring one of the paintings in the show.  Here is a detail of the photo booth!   Also here is a great writeup Tim Gihring  did.  Homage to Matisse: Shawn McCann channels the master to accent the exhibition

And this is how you have fun with the Matisse Photo Booth!  Love the poses Katie, Kim, Courtney and Emma!

Photo courtesy of Katie Hill

The Great Draw

Wanted to share with you some really fun street paintings that I recently created in Dubuque Iowa.  The Great Draw was an amazing day long celebration of community and street painting sponsored and created by Outside the Lines Gallery.  Stormy and Connie were great hosts and there was much fun to be had!  Here are the two street paintings I did for the event.  The chalk box image was a 15ft x 15ft piece done on Friday and "Botticello" was 15ft x 28ft long and created for the event on Saturday!  This was another fun Art for After Hours project.

Brookings Chalk Craze

Here is a fun little post on a quick 6 hour street painting demo I did for some kiddos in Brookings, SD a few weeks ago.  The piece ended up being 16ft wide by 20 ft long before the rain moved in.  Always working around the weather :)

Wilhelmshaven International street painting Fest

Here is the finished piece I did for the Wilhelmshaven International Street Art fest in Germany a couple of weeks ago.  It was such a great time being there with 40 other artists from 12 different countries.

Wet Paint street art demo

Here is a quick 3 hour street painting that I did over at Wet Paint in St. Paul for the launch of street stix pastels by richeson.  The first image is what was finished in between the rains.  The second image is what it looks like today after a month of being out in the weather.  They have held on pretty good so far.

3D outdoor wall mural at the Chahinkapa Zoo is done!

After 12 days working on the wall mural at the Chahinkapa Zoo in Wahpeton, ND, I am happy to say the mural is complete!!!! Had a blast taking an ordinary wall into something that is fun and creative for all the visitors to enjoy! Here is the finished mural. The before image is below!

Street Painting Vine Commercial for Target

Had a blast creating this really fun Vine video for Target recently.  Gotta love them using street painting within it!!!!!  Hope you like

The title is "Mmmm, Summer!"

Worthington Windsurfing Regatta Festival

Well, the great thing is that I got a chance to head down to the Worthington Windsurfing Regatta to do a street painting this past weekend.  Friday was an amazing day with gorgeous weather.  Unfortunately that was the last time I was able to work on the piece as it was a monsoon after that.  Here is the pic of the work I did on the piece Friday and then the picture of the rain covered tarp the rest of the weekend! Had a great time and looking forward to heading back next year!

A few samples of some projects!

3D illusionary piece for Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN

3D wall mural for Technology Festival, Mumbai India

3D street mural for International street painting fest, Sarasota Florida

3D piece for the Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN

2D piece for Artisphere, Greenville, South Carolina

3D piece for Deluxe Corporation, Social Media Pond, Shoreview, MN

Trompe L-Oeil mural for Vast Enterprises showroom, Minneapolis, Mn

2D banner mural Bike Night, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN

2D banner mural Bike Night, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN

Let the Residency begin!

After much anticipation, the 2 week artist residency that I will be doing at the Circle of Nations school in Wahpeton, North Dakota is about to begin.  After packing up what seemed like my entire studio, I trudged along, rear end practically scraping along the way and am now ready for the classes to begin.  I am really excited to see what the 106 students I will be working with come up with for their project.  As soon as I can post images from it I definitely will.  The focus of the residency is with children's book Illustration and writing.  I will be working with the kids on the illustration side and Lise Erdrich will be working with them on the writing side.  The fun that comes from this venture will be produced in a wonder book that is still in the works and scope, depending on how creative the kids get:)

The best part is that each kid is going to be given their own sketch book and pencil set.  Here's hoping they are filled with many great images!

Upcoming NEA grant focusing on Children's/Book Illustration

Hard to believe that we are at the mid point of February already.  This winter seems to be just flying by for sure.  I am excited though that this means in a little more than a month I will be doing my artist residency at the Circle of Nations School in my hometown of Wahpeton for 2 weeks.  Thanks to the amazing opportunity with a National Endowment for the Arts grant, I will look forward to immersing myself with the students there to teach the ins and outs of book illustration and work on a project with them that we hope to produce.  Not only will I get the pleasure of working with the students, but also an amazingly talented writer Lise Erdrich! The time can't get here soon enough:)  I have a feeling it will be a similar feeling to this!