Jill Schramm/MDN Artist Guido van Helten describes the process of developing mural art that portrays the people and the place during a discussion at a Minot social and fundraising event Thursday at 10 North Main.

The creative process that begins with capturing the essence of Minot is starting to flow for the artist who will be transforming downtown grain silos into a public work of art.

Guido van Helten, an Australia native who has painted murals on structures around the world, has been in Minot for about two weeks, taking photographs and talking with residents to get a sense of the community.

“You could say my work is about identity and monument making,” van Helten said at a social and fundraising event held in Minot Thursday for the Union Silos Public Art Project. The project will turn the Minot Farmers Union grain silos located at 318 1st Ave. NE into North Dakota’s largest public work of art.

Old grain elevators make a special type of canvas, van Helten said.

“I see the architecture to be an identifier of place and community. I got a little bit obsessed with the architecture of these buildings. I’ve read a lot about them. It’s a very unique form of architecture that’s America grown,” he said. “So I’ve developed a lot of respect for them – a lot of respect for what they mean to you. There might be some elderly people that remember delivering grain to the site, people that can see them from the highway and know that they’re coming home. All these things put a lot of stress on me. I need to really think about what I’m going to do and what legacy it’s going to leave behind in the town.”

For that reason, although he is leaving Tuesday, his research won’t be done. He has another project in Italy to finish but he plans to return to Minot to continue probing into Minot’s identity, getting a feel for the area during farming season and summer activities. He said it can take two to three months of photography and research to learn the story of a town.

“I’m really looking for an emotion, and that’s to me what is a more important and powerful outlet. It’s more important that we create an iconic centerpiece that simple people can understand,” he said. “You can also visualize it from a distance, from the bridge, from the hill, from all areas. It’s a part of my study – driving around town looking at different angles. It becomes an architectural installation as well. I’m using the drone. I’m scaling it and measuring every surface.”

He noted that silos aren’t flat but have differing curvatures that can distort a painting so each must be tackled differently.

Van Helten said the final design isn’t made public because even as he is painting, he often is making changes. Nor are computer renderings a good representation of what viewers ultimately will see on the structure, he said.

The public will be able to watch the painting in progress, though. Van Helten explained the paint he uses is a mineral paint, obtained from a German company, that has tremendous longevity.

At this point, he can’t say how long the painting might take because each project is different.

From teenage graffiti painter to renowned artist in a worldwide movement of mural art, van Helten has been creating large-scale art across the globe for the past several years. It began after his first painting on a silo in a small town in Australia gained international attention.

Union Silos is part of van Helten’s Monuments project, in which he plans to create one artistic tourist destination in each of the 50 states.

“I really need to think about how the work is going to be received to the outside audience, not just Minot, not just North Dakota, but the audience of my work – the audience in Australia that looks at my work, the audience who might say, ‘Where’s Minot and why am I here?'” van Helten said. His response when international viewers ask ‘Why Minot?’ is the answer of an artist.

“Because look how interesting this place is and look at the contrast and look at the imagery that I’m capturing in a small town of North Dakota that probably, I’d say, 80 percent of my audience may not know about,” he said. “So, I want to share that message really passionately, and that’s why I give a lot of time.”