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!

Smiles for Sandy Hook Elementary: A Minnesota Children's Art Project

The Children’s Book Illustrators Guild of Minnesota (CBIG) with assistance from the Bloomington Theatre and Arts Center, Wet Paint and Richeson Art is hosting an event on Saturday, December 22^nd, 2012 designed to bring smiles to the children of Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.

“Smiles for Sandy Hook Elementary: A Minnesota Children’s Art Project” will bring Minnesota children and their families together at the Bloomington Theatre and Arts Center to create small, one-of-a-kind pieces of art which will be given to Sandy Hook Elementary in hopes of bringing a bright, happy light back to the halls of the school.

The event, which will take place from 10am to 2pm on December 22^nd, 2012 is an open-door event, prepared to handle hundreds of children and their families as they visit the art center, make unique works of art and create smiles for the children of Sandy Hook Elementary.

For more information, visit http://www.book-illustrators.blogspot.com/ .

For volunteer and donation information,

please contact me (Scott Spinks) at scottspinks@rocketmail.com or by calling me at (651)247-0359

Art supplies have been donated by Wet Paint & Richeson Art.

The location has been donated by the Bloomington Theatre & Arts Center.

The following donations are still needed:

Time and Energy

Scissors

Glue

Drinking water and snack for volunteers

Photography (We need two photographers to cover the event)

Shipping (to ship the finished at to Connecticut)

Signage to direct participants to the location

Printing for flyers

Name tags for volunteers

Cash donations will be taken at the door on the day of the event.

Connect with the event on FACEBOOK: Smiles4SandyHook

National Endowment for the Arts Grant excitement

Well, here is the amazing news I have been waiting to tell.  I am honored to be apart of another National Endowment for the Arts Grant!  That makes 2 NEA grants that i will be working on in 2013.  Couldn't be more honored and excited.  I especially would like to thank Lise Erdrich for helping make this happen and am looking forward to working with all the kids at Circle of Nations school back in my hometown of Wahpeton, ND!

SO here is the press release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

[ON OR AFTER] December 4, 2012

CIRCLE OF NATIONS SCHOOL receives NEA grant to support “OUR SCHOOL, OUR STORIES” PROJECT 

WAHPETON, ND— National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman announced today that Circle of Nations School is one of 153 not-for-profit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Challenge America Fast-Track grant.  Circle of Nations School is recommended for a $10,000 grant to support a two-week artist residency and production costs for a student picture book project in Laura Youngbird’s art class. A mural project is planned as well.

In this FY 2013 funding round, the NEA received 393 eligible Challenge America Fast-Track applications, requesting a total of $3,930,000.  The NEA will award 153 Challenge America Fast-Track grants totaling $1.53 million awarded to organizations in 41 states, Washington, DC, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These include 49 first-time Arts Endowment grantees. The Challenge America Fast-Track category offers support primarily to small and mid-sized organizations for projects that extend the reach of the arts to populations whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability.

"Shawn McCann is a Twin Cities-based illustrator who grew up in Wahpeton. He is a graduate of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and has worked on children's books, product illustration, street painting, murals, and fine art,” stated Lise Erdrich, arts advocate at CNS. “He is known for his giant 3D murals.”

Said McCann, “Illustrating children’s books is one of the great things I love about being an artist. Being able to create a rich environment of color and texture that engages kids is the driving force behind my work. For there is nothing better than opening up an entirely new world each and every time a child opens a book.” 

Some of the titles Shawn has illustrated include The Sick Bug, The Sick Bug Goes to School, Gregory's Paper Airplane, The Path to Forgiveness, Staarabu was Wise, Anana was Gentle and many others. Some awards that these books have won include the Silver Moonbeam Award, two Gold Mom’s Choice Awards, a Silver Nautilus, Next Generation Indie Book Award, Silver MIPA award and others. Shawn has also appeared the last two years as a featured illustrator at the LA Times Festival of Books.

"The NEA was founded on the principle that the arts belong to all the people of the United States," said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. "We're proud that Challenge America Fast-Track grants bring more opportunities for arts engagement to underserved communities." Chairman Landesman visited Wahpeton in December 2008 and was so impressed that he wrote about it his NEA blog, calling the Red Door Gallery and local arts effort “creative place-making at its finest.”

See the complete listing of projects recommended for Challenge America Fast-Track grant support at www.arts.gov.

Established in 1904, Circle of Nations School is an off-reservation intertribal boarding school serving 200 children annually, grades 4-8, according to ND instructional standards. One if its most distinguished alumni and longtime employees is Woodrow Wilson Keeble, posthumously honored in 2008 with the Congressional Medal of Honor and North Dakota’s Roughrider Award. 

 # # #

Sarasota International Chalk Festival 2012

Another grand time was had at this years International Chalk Festival in Sarasota Florida.  This years theme was "circus" and we were honored that the famous daredevil and tightrope walker Nik Wallenda was part of our street painting.  Here are a few shots of the festival and our piece.  More pics to come as I get thru them from our trip!  The piece below was designed by Anthony Cappetto and was worked on by myself, Anthony, and Wendy Stum.  We were the Art for AFter hours team!

Finished "High Wire" street painting 

Just hanging around :)

Part of the other street painters

Anthony Cappetto and myself working the wire!

Anthony, Wendy, Nik Wallenda, Denis Kowal, and myself

Nik Wallenda carrying Festival Director and Founder Denise Kowal across the rope!

Having Fun!

Street Painting fun in Carrollton, Georgia!

This month has been full of many wonderful excursions.  It started with working on a mural at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, worked its way to Georgia for a street painting, wound its way to Minot, ND to do a lecture and school visit and is going to be ending the month on a week long street painting event in Sarasota.  And that doesn't even count the other fun things that happened in between all of that!  Definitely am loving the creative energy that is being expelled currently.  Hopefully I can keep the energy and excitement going into November.

SO, back to the street painting in Georgia.  I had such a great time down in Carrollton, Georgia at MeccaFest and was really happy to have met so many wonderful people along the way.  As a project thru Art for After Hours, it was great to finally get a chance to get out of the Atlanta Airport that I so often am stuck at.  Thru the course of 2 days, I created this 12ft x 16ft 3D street painting of an Indonesian landscape.  Hope you like!

TerraCotta Mural at Minneapolis Institute of Arts

After a week and a half, I am pleased to see that the mural at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is done.  It was a great time working on it and definitely am glad that this one will be staying up a little longer than the Rembrandt mural that was done earlier this summer.  The mural itself is in the TerraCotta Warriors shop on 2 at the end of the exhibit, so if you happen to be down at the MIA before January, check it out and let me know what you think!

Here are a few pics of the mural

The finished mural

Progress on the leaves

This was about half way thru

Here the tree was looking a little bare

I'm back! The move to the new pad and studio is complete

Whew, what a few months it has been since I last posted.  This summer definitely flew by.  The good news is that I am totally enjoying my new house and studio!  It has just been a lot of hard work and sweat moving not only my normal stuff, but all those art materials and the worst of the lot; the books!  Many props to all of my friends and family that helped make the move so great.

Now it is a matter of getting back into the swing of things and get the studio back to full speed.  This fall is definitely going to be great with some amazing projects and trips coming up.  I will be doing another mural at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts for the Terra Cotta Warrior show and will also be heading out to North Dakota, Georgia, Florida, and Washington DC on some projects.  Can't wait to post some pictures of the upcoming events and work!  Until then, here are a few shots of the new place to hold you over.  And if you are in the neighborhood, swing by and grab a beer:)

National Endowment for the Arts Grant!

Great news!!!!!  I am so honored to be apart of this great National Endowment for the Arts Grant that came in Friday.  I am really looking forward to heading back to my hometown of Wahpeton and creating some art!  Here is the Press release about the "Our Town Grant"!!!!!!!!!!








Contacts: [Lise Erdrich] [lise.erdrich@circleofnations.org] [701-642-3796 ext. 353]

Dave Keehn, CNS
Wayne Beyer, TRAC
Amy Schmidt, TRAC
Roger Jensen, TRAC



 National Endowment for the Arts Announces 2012 Our Town Grant Recipients


[Circle of Nations School/Three Rivers Arts Council] one of 80 grantees selected nationwide


[Wahpeton, ND]-- The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announces 80 Our Town grant awards totaling $4.995 million and reaching 44 states and the District of Columbia. [Circle of Nations School is one of the grantees and will receive [$50,000] to [for innovative arts programming to foster community interaction and activate existing cultural and community assets]. Circle of Nations is the lead agency in partnership with Three Rivers Arts Council]


Through Our Town, the NEA supports creative placemaking projects that help transform communities into lively, beautiful, and sustainable places with the arts at their core. The grantee projects will improve quality of life, encourage creative activity, create community identity and a sense of place,and help revitalize local economies. All Our Town grant awards were made to partnerships that consisted of a minimum of a not-for-profit organization and a local government entity.

[Description of your project] “The partnership will connect world-class art with our town. We will capitalize on existing local assets and bring diverse people together to celebrate, inspire, and be inspired,” according to project writer Lise Erdrich. “For example, students can make a film or help create a mural about our town and its environmental, cultural and historical significance. The public can experience the Red River Jig via internationally-known musicians and dancers at a local festival.” CNS especially wants public art projects to engage school-agers with community to create the sense of place and belonging to a place.


Wahpeton native Shawn McCann, known for his large-scale 3D art, is one of the project artists. He stated, "I am honored and excited about this wonderful opportunity to come back to Wahpeton and create a lasting impression with the "Our Town Grant". Having spent my childhood and formative years in Wahpeton, it gave me the inspiration and drive to pursue the arts that I love. Being able to bring that inspiration back to Wahpeton on a grand scale will be a great opportunity to give back to my "hometown". I am also greatly appreciative of the Circle of Nations School and all the hard work Lise Erdrich has done in securing this grant, and the Three Rivers Arts Council(TRAC) and the National Endowment for the Arts for believing in the work that I do and making this mural a reality. "


"Cities and towns are transformed when you bring the arts – both literally and figuratively – into the center of them,” said NEA Chairman Landesman. "From Teller, Alaska to Miami, Florida, communities are pursuing creative placemaking, making their neighborhoods more vibrant and robust by investing in the performing, visual, and literary arts. I am proud to be partnering with these 80 communities and their respective arts, civic, and elected leaders."


Landesmann visited Wahpeton in December of 2011 to see the CNS birch bark art and film project previously funded by NEA. He also toured the Red Door gallery, met the public there, and wrote “WOW!” in the guest book. His NEA blog about the works in Wahpeton was very enthusiastic, “creative place-making at its finest.” He interacted with Laura Youngbird’s art classroom and a student drum/dance group led by world champion performers Jason and Winona Kingbird.


[Quote from leader of your organization] A support letter from Amy Schmidt, TRAC President, stated, “The state arts council believes in Wahpeton as a model for the region.” Wayne Beyer, TRAC Treasurer, is also a board member for North Dakota Council on the Arts. That organization has funded a creative asset-mapping project for the community to promote arts-related economic and civic development. The asset-mapping report from Morgan & Dean Development is expected in the next few weeks.


The NEA received 317 applications for Our Town that were assigned to one of three application review panels based on their project type; arts engagement, cultural planning and design, or non-metro and tribal communities. [CNS/TRAC] received an [Arts Engagement] grant award. NEA press office noted, “With only 80 grants emerging from the 317 applications, or a success rate of 25 percent, competition was strong, a testament to the artistic excellence and merit of [the Wahpeton project].


NEA Director of Design Jason Schupbach said, "It's an exciting time for evolution and exploration in the creative peacemaking field, and I'm certain this year’s Our Town grants will bear fruit for their communities and lessons for the field as a whole."


For a complete listing of projects recommended for Our Town grant support, please visit the NEA website at arts.gov.


[Circle of Nations School was established in 1904. Its mission is “to build academic achievement and healthy development of the whole child in a culturally relevant living and learning environment.” CNS actively pursues arts opportunities and is a co-sponsor of Fine Arts Festival with Wahpeton High School. Three Rivers Arts Council was established in 1995 to increase awareness of, appreciation for and involvement with the arts and its potential to improve quality of life for the individual as well as the community. TRAC envisions a community that values art as an important and even integral part of a productive and happy society.] Its mission has evolved with a commitment to educate the public and honor the natural history, artistic possibility, geographic significance and cultural heritage of the Red River confluence area. ]

Minneapolis Institute of Arts Rembrandt Gala Mural-Dance Hall

I am finally back posting again.  After a whirlwind spring full of projects, I am happy to finally share some pictures of the latest and largest mural to date that I have worked on.  With a little over a week and 3980 square feet, I think it turned out pretty cool.  I will be posting a more in depth post about the process of creating such a large mural in another one soon, but wanted to get this up and running.  The theme behind this mural was one of back alley, graffiti laced amsterdam dance space.  It was created in the US Bank Gallery at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and am pretty sure the walls haven't looked like this before :)  Stop back soon to see the process shots of the project! And to make the project even more cool, the piece was lit up in black lights for the Rembrandt gala Friday night.  I think you will be able to tell which one is the lit up one!!!!!