GRAND FORKS – At first glance, the 12-by-24-foot mural at the Columbia Mall food court appears to be an outdoor Midwestern fall scene with sprawling leafy trees. A pair of wolves sit face-to-face atop a large tree root, howling at the sky, one paw draped over the other’s, with their cubs approaching on the right. But a closer look reveals as many as 2,000 individual, mostly 4-by-4-inch images, originally painted by area residents – and others around the country – and placed in a grid pattern.
About 185 of the tiles were painted by people who attended the annual ArtWise show in mid-April at the mall, said Rita Haag, ArtWise executive director. “It would have been neat if we got buffalo,” Haag said, “but we got wolves.” The overall design was created by Lewis Lavoie, visual artist, at Mural Mosaic, a company based in Alberta, Canada.
He and Paul Lavoie, branding and online expert, were present for the mural unveiling Sunday, June 9, at the mall. The collage includes unique images of snowmen, a teddy bear, pumpkins carved for Halloween, human faces, lions’ heads, flowers, sailboats, a butterfly, lady bug, and a black cat and a white cat seated together. ADVERTISEMENT The artwork, titled “America Connects Love and Family National Mural,” is the result of a collaboration between ArtWise and the Mural Mosaic company.
Each year, the company selects four or five U.S. communities with which to collaborate, Haag said.
ArtWise was selected for the company’s Globa.
