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Amanda Coen '08 (Locke, N.Y.), left, and Emily Parks '08 (River Falls, Wis.), on scaffolding, were among those who assisted Schmitt, foreground, on the mural.
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Carly Schmitt '03 knows what she wants as an artist: "I like to create work that when taken solely at face value makes people say, 'Wow! That's really neat!'"
Her latest "wow" is a 20-by-35-foot mural on a wall at Schroeder's Bar and Grill in a blighted section of St. Paul's North End. The mural was commissioned through a grant from a neighborhood association known as Sparc. After meeting with area residents through two community forums, Schmitt took all of last August to complete the work.
Schmitt, who majored in art and communication and media studies, is a native of White Bear Lake, Minn. She has her own company, Artist@Large, headquartered in Seattle and travels throughout the United States to paint murals (www.carlyschmitt.com).
"Public art is truly just that, open to the public; and so I like to create images that have the ability to interest, impact and speak directly to 'the masses,'" Schmitt says. After drawing the audience in, she likes to "enrich the work with a whole bunch of interesting details and visual metaphors." For example, to celebrate the neighborhood's ethnic diversity, she incorporated different animals, flowers and objects that mean something to neighborhood residents.
"Schmitt's mural pierces the gray with the vibrant blues and greens of a St. Paul cityscape, fronted by a tree that bulges outside the frame with deep roots and branches made of hands of many shades," the St. Paul Pioneer Press wrote. "More than a mere celebration of diversity, the mural implies that the neighborhood's health and growth depend upon each ethnic and racial branch."
The mural is called "Victory Garden." The title was inspired both by World War II, when millions of North American city dwellers grew their own produce so that more food could be channeled to Allied troops overseas, and by the work of an African-American artist, Maurice Carlton, which Schmitt discovered during her research. During the 1970s, Carlton took a dangerous intersection in St. Paul and turned it into a community garden where he installed a sign reading: "Mother Love Conquers All Nations."
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Carly Schmitt '03 and her 20-by-35-foot mural, entitled "Victory Garden." It's on the west exterior wall of Schroeder's Bar and Grill in St. Paul's North End, where Como Avenue and Dale Street meet Front Avenue.
PHOTOS: GREG HELGESON |
But Schmitt doesn't want to "over-explain" her work. In fact, she believes viewers will and should create their own stories about it.
Pat Hauer, a manager at Schroeder's, sees the mural as a unique advertisement for both Schroeder's, which had a storied past life, and the neighborhood as a whole. "It says what we can't with words, " he told the Pioneer Press. "I think we all want the same thing, for people to see this area in a new light."
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