KINDRED, N.D. — As a printmaker, Eric A. Johnson is often confined in how big he can create by the size of his printing press, often working smaller than 40-by-30 inches.
This summer, though, he stretched out on his biggest canvas yet.
Johnson and residents of Kindred, North Dakota, created a mural on the town’s main drag. The large painting covers the side of a building next to 701 Spirits and Grill. The roughly 15-by-17 foot colorful piece of art highlights aspects of the community’s history and identity.
Printmaker Eric A. Johnson (left) discusses his latest artwork at 491 Elm Street in downtown Kindred.
Anna Paige / The Forum
Johnson lives in Hillsboro, North Dakota, but after attending a workshop on creating public art, he set out looking for a community partnership. He found it in Kindred where he had previously been an artist-in-residence, working with the Kindred Arts Partnership and community booster Jen Swenson.
The mural project received support from Kindred Parks and Recreation, Kindred Community Club, the Kindred Days committee and the Kindred Area Arts Partnership. The project also received a grant from the North Dakota Council on the Arts.
While getting the community involved was not a problem, finding the right space provided a hurdle.
Eric A. Johnson works on a lift to touch up the Kindred mural.
Contributed / Jen Swenson
“Finding the building was a little interesting,” Johnson said, standing in front of the painting in late August. Initially he wanted to paint on the east-facing wall of Hawk’s Market and Bodega, but the brick was deteriorating.
He found a willing host in Rick Nymark who offered the street-facing side of his building.
Swenson introduced the artist to different people, businesses and groups. He listened to what people said about what made Kindred such a great place.
“I took that and basically came up with the design.” Johnson said.
Printmaker Eric A. Johnson added plenty of colorful details pertinent to the city’s history and landmarks.
Anna Paige / The Forum
He points out the different landmarks and icons in the painting.
“There’s the flour mill on the Sheyenne River. The elevator. And then there was a type of barley that was developed here. You have sugar beets, corn and wheat. Someone said, ‘Well, there are no soybeans,’ but we just said, ‘Soybeans are back in one of those fields,’” he said with a laugh.
There’s a plane to represent the town’s airport and Viking shields to show off pride in the Kindred High Vikings.
A decorative black border reveals words residents said reflected the community, like ‘home,’ ‘play,’ ‘team’ and ‘kind.’
“That was kind of a way for us to put more than just the things that I represented in there. I think there’s a ‘hope’ in there that’s a little hard to see,” Johnson said, looking at the painting. “‘Heart’ is in there a couple times.”
Printmaker Eric A. Johnson embedded wordplay into a new mural in downtown Kindred.
Anna Paige / The Forum
The painting is in Johnson’s signature style, featuring bold colors broken into distinct areas separated by dark edges. The shapes are non-geometric, but the overall effect is akin to a stained glass window.
“I’ve never done stained glass, but that’s kind of how I think of it a little bit,” he said.
The style developed years ago after he was looking up through a sunroof in a car and saw how droplets of rain held their shape, creating a pattern and reflecting light and color.
“That’s where that kind of started and then I added that into some of the prints that I was working on at the time,” he said.
For the mural, he set up a makeshift studio at the high school in late July. He drew out the design on sections of material roughly 5-by-5 feet. He labeled each area like a color by numbers and invited the community to come paint.
Eric A. Johnson takes a seat to touch up the Kindred mural.
Contributed / Jen Swenson
After the painting, the individual sheets were pasted to the building with a special gel in mid-August.
Swenson said all total about 60 volunteers had a hand in the project.
Bethany Johnson was one of those to pick up a brush.
“That was really cool to be a part of,” she said as she stopped by with her kids to look at the mural. “It’s amazing how he took all those pieces and made one whole, cohesive picture. You can see the texture of the brick underneath and that is really amazing.”
As impressed as she is about the technique, she said the design and its message really hits home.
“The design is perfect for our community. We love it a lot,” she said, adding that her favorite words in the border are “faith” and “safe.”
“Everybody will have a different view of home, but you can’t argue that we’re built on agriculture,” said Swenson, whose family farms locally. “I think when you get into that picture by the sun there, it can be what it is for you. So I think it’ll be long lasting that way.”
She has plans to add signage near the mural to acknowledge donors and supporters as well as add context for what the imagery in the painting means.
For almost 30 years John Lamb has been covering arts and entertainment in the Red River Valley. He started writing for the High Plains Reader in 1997 and moved to The Forum in 2002. He is an Annenberg fellow, an occasional judge for talent shows and food contestants and co-hosts the weekly “Gardening Together: The Podcast.” He’s rubbed shoulders with Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, drank with National Book Award winner Colm McCann, had coffee with Grammy-winning classical musician Peter Schickele and interviewed countless other artists, actors, musicians, writers and assorted interesting people. Contact John at jlamb@forumcomm.com.