Oooooooooooooooo boy we’re back at it with even more street art! I hope you enjoyed the “Sticker Edition” I did in PDX, but now we’re going back to the usual medium - MURALS! The Twin Cities (Minneapolis / St. Paul, Minnesota) has a lof them—some really famous ones, in fact—and I was super lucky to have a local with nothing better to do than literally drive from one mural to the next with me for 2 days straight. Shout out to my kid brother, Joe! 😘
I think this post takes the cake for the farthest total distance traveled within a single street art post. These murals were SPREAD OUT. The Twin Cities is a massive place. And on this particular weekend, it was hotter than the devil’s butt crack. I hope you are reading this in a nice climate-controlled space because when I think back on this weekend… I feel sweaty.
Well, I won’t bury the lead. Let’s see some STREET ART, EH?
And then, of course, there’s the George Floyd mural. This is probably the most famous mural in the world right now. George Floyd Square, as it is now called, was actually an extremely moving experience in itself. I’m going to give it its own article, which is coming up next. There’s actually a lot of other art around this place, but I will save that for tomorrow. Today, I’ll just show you THE mural.
Of course, no street art post would be complete without an attempt to credit all of the talented artists who brought this magic into the world. Here’s everybody that I have been able to identify so far, no particular order…
AA. Johnson-Ortiz (@aa.johnsonortiz)
Kyle Holdridge
WERD57
Know Peace Murals (@knowpeacemurals)
Maria Javier
Jose Dominguez (@hozay_dmngz)
Martzia Thometz (@prettyhard)
Pablo Helm Hernandez (@dog_bowl_repairman)
If you are aware of any artists that I might have missed on this list, please let me know! I really do add credits to these articles years after they have been published when people point out something I missed. So hit me up.
Here are a few artists that I caught in the act…
The Twin Cities area is honestly very cool. There is a TON to do and see and understand here. It’s a bit of a dark horse pick for a weekend away, but if you took a few days to explore this place (ideally not in the winter), you would not regret it. That being said, you definitely should not postpone your vacation to Hawaii to come here… but if you visit at some point, I think you’ll be glad you did. It would be a great place to live. Over the course of the few days I spent here on this most recent visit, we spent a ton of time walking around, and I came away with a random but fun assortment of photos that I’ve dropped into the gallery below.
There ya go! The Twin Cities is one of the most quintessentially Midwestern places out there. Having been born & raised as a Midwesterner, this makes it feel very familiar and nice, even though I’ve only visited a handful of times. The Midwest does not get much props in American pop culture. It’s under-appreciated, unknown to many, and entirely unpretentious. Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, I remember asking around if anybody had ever heard a song mention Columbus. My friend Max told me that the only song he’d ever heard actually mention Columbus by name was the one you’ll find below as “Track of the Day.” I know every single word to this song now, but it’s actually not about Columbus. It’s about Minnesota, the Midwest in general, and the dynamics between the Midwest and the rest of the country. Enjoy.
This place is DENSE with street art. I have a ton to show you, and I didn’t even get all of it. I mean, I doubt that I ever get 100% of this stuff, but I at least try to exhaust everything that I am aware of. But I have never knowingly left so much on the table as I did in Denver. There were lots of incredible murals that I saw out the window of a car, or when I didn’t have my camera with me, and I was never able to circle back to capture them. So as much as I have for you, this does not NEARLY cover it.