Growing Destinations
Your go-to source for insightful discussions on destination development. The Growing Destinations podcast delves into the strategies, challenges, and successes that drive community growth. Each episode features in-depth conversations with local and national experts, uncovering universal themes and innovative practices that can be applied to any city or region.
Growing Destinations
Transforming Public Spaces Through Art with Muralist Greg Wimmer
Can a single mural change the essence of a public space? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Greg Wimmer, the talented muralist from Rochester, Minnesota who has turned landscapes into canvases of vibrant art. Greg takes us through the creative and practical challenges of his large-scale projects. Discover how his major mural for KROC Radio in Rochester in 1999 set the stage for a series of transformative artworks across the state, each uniquely reflecting its surroundings. His latest project is a “Greetings from Rochester” mural.
The Growing Destinations podcast is brought to you by Experience Rochester. Learn more about Minnesota's third largest city, which is home to Mayo Clinic and features wonderful recreational and entertainment opportunities, by visiting experiencerochestermncom.
Speaker 2:When I did the murals for the DNR and I did these few murals, you know and I thought, well, that's really nice. You know, I never thought I'd be able to do this or dream to doing this, and I did some murals. I'll probably never get the opportunity again. And then, later on in life, what am I doing? I'm doing all these murals. And how did that happen? You know, whatever you're doing, sometimes early in your life or early in your career, is important.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Growing Destinations podcast, where we take a deep dive into destination development and focus on a wide range of topics, from tourism and entertainment to economic development and entrepreneurism and much more. I'm your host, Bill Von Bank. Public art has a unique way of capturing our imagination, sparking conversations and transforming ordinary spaces into extraordinary places. Today, I'm joined by artist Greg Wimmer from Rochester, Minnesota, who has created some impressive murals throughout Minnesota. His most recent is a Greetings from Rochester mural in the Galleria Shops in downtown Rochester. Greg Wimmer, welcome to the Growing Destinations podcast. Hello Rochester, Greg Wimmer, welcome to the Growing Destinations podcast. Hello Greg, we have a lot to talk about today because you have some great art all around the state. Before we do that, can you share a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2:Originally I'm from Michigan, northern Michigan, and I went to school in Grand Rapids, michigan, and this will probably come up later, but I moved to Minnesota as a place to start my career.
Speaker 1:Your career as an artist? What inspired you?
Speaker 2:to be an artist. Inspiration comes from probably some sources. I think I like to draw a lot and I think, with most artists, a lot of inspiration does come from nature or the world around you. I had a talent for drawing and therefore I just pursued it.
Speaker 1:With some education as well.
Speaker 2:With some education, of course.
Speaker 1:So from Michigan you came to Minnesota. What brought you here?
Speaker 2:Well, I had to go somewhere, especially because I come from a small resort town in northern Michigan, a very beautiful place called Charlevoix. But if you're going to begin a career in the graphic design field, you have to go to a larger city, and I'm a Midwestern and northern person, so I thought Minneapolis was a great place.
Speaker 1:And when you came to Minnesota, based on my research, I believe you started doing some work for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I actually went through the typical artist's hard times, you know, couldn't find a job right away. And I happened to be living with someone that worked for the DNR and he said well, you know, come down, maybe they can get some work. And I did a few drawings for some things and then they had someone who was going to do a mural who wound up. They couldn't do it and so they. So I wound up doing it. Pretty interesting, because they were beginning the interpretive centers in state parks and they had a brand new one they wanted a mural in.
Speaker 1:Had you been doing murals before then?
Speaker 2:Well, no, I have never painted anything that large, and so it was a very interesting experience.
Speaker 1:A learning process for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it was like so it was in Granite Falls, minnesota. The visitor center is no longer there. When I went out there, I slept on a sleeping bag in the visitor center. I would wake up in the morning, have granola and orange juice and start work. I went into town once a day for lunch, but I got to see a lot of things in the Minnesota River Valley as the seasons changed.
Speaker 1:What other projects did you do for the DNR at that time?
Speaker 2:Well, after that they had me do one at Blue Mound. Blue Mound has a house Blue Mound State. Park yeah, State Park, and it has a house built by Fred Manfred, who's written 32, 35 novels, and he built this house out of rock, which the DNR when the park came about at that point they wanted something there, so I immediately did something there and I gradually wound up back in Rochester.
Speaker 1:Your first large mural in Rochester, Minnesota, was for KROC Radio in 1999. What inspired you to create that mural?
Speaker 2:And Greg Gentling who I believe owned the radio station at the time. I believe he was out in Oregon or Seattle and he saw murals and he came back and he wanted to do a mural and he wanted to do a radio and he actually at first I thought he wanted to do more like an advertising thing and then I started picking up the idea that no, he wanted a mural. He gave me a little tiny photo of a radio brown and beige and I thought, oh, what am I going to do with this? Right, so what do you do with brown? And this is how you work. And I happened to see a Land's End cover that had a Hawaiian mural on it. It had all these purples and warm tones and I figured out how I would do it color-wise and just made it very large on there. I know he just wanted a mural and it was kind of fun to do because when I was painting it no one could figure out what it was going to be.
Speaker 1:Intrigue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was done in 1999.
Speaker 1:So that's how that all came about and you've painted murals in various locations across Minnesota and beyond. How does location influence your creative process?
Speaker 2:Well, you do learn a lot about situations in the landscape and people there and you come out of it with a new. You know some, really a lot of new things. I painted one in Marshall, minnesota, which I had to submit and I sort of had to win that one. But I knew from working with the DNR. I knew about the prairies and that helped me and some of the small towns are out in that area and I think that helped me get the job.
Speaker 1:Tell us about your current mural project in the Galleria in downtown Rochester.
Speaker 2:Well, that project came about because I did something else for the Nordic shop and they saw that and they thought that was a good idea and they were looking for ways to utilize the hallway, because it's kind of a dead end right now, and they had the idea of doing the Welcome to Rochester. So when I met with them I thought this is a great idea and I felt very I get to do this. No one has done this for Rochester before and so I felt very kind of privileged in a way, like oh, I'm going to create this, and so it was a matter of trying to figure out. There's only so many letters and there's a hundred things you could put in there, so you have to figure out what's the most important things that would represent Rochester in a very short, you know, visual way.
Speaker 1:So it's the classic postcard looking greetings from type postcard with the Rochester letters and iconic fixtures within. I see, having watched you over the last couple of weeks bring this mural to life. I see, obviously, iconic buildings around Rochester and also the Ear of Corn Water Tower is there as well. You know how did you decide what stays and what goes?
Speaker 2:Some of it's obvious, like the Mayo Clinic, but I've been in Rochester since the like 1980. And so you gather some information in the back of your head and you just things like the water tower that keep coming up over and over again which you may have thought like at one time. That's like what's that? It's just a water tower. People seem to like it. So it's like, okay, I've got to get that in there because everybody wants it in there. Then the other things I did is created a background. I noticed a lot of backgrounds might use either graphics or they might in some of their artworks or the natural things. So that's why I used the bluff lands as a scenic background and some of the other natural objects from the trails in Rochester.
Speaker 1:In what ways do you think public art like your murals contributes to the identity and vibrancy of a city like Rochester?
Speaker 2:I think the radio is a classic because people just really liked it and they just like it's been there since nobody's painted over it yet. So it's like people and it's kind of iconic at this point. But sometimes after I first did it I had people comment and they say, oh, I just love that radio. And that's what I think tells me a lot about. I did one on North Broadway which was called it's got the Hilton on it now but it had CJ's bar and I did these musicians and there were lots of color and movement and people say, oh, that just makes me smile. And you get it. When you work out in the public and people go by, you get a lot of comments and you start figuring out what it is that makes people happy and rich or poor or whatever People like it. They seem to like it.
Speaker 1:You've worked in both urban and rural settings. How do the challenges and rewards of mural work differ between those environments?
Speaker 2:The work environment itself, of course, is different. How do the challenges and rewards of mural work differ between those environments? The work environment itself, of course, is different. When I worked in Marshall, there was lots of loud motorcycles and pickup trucks, because you work in a street environment, you know.
Speaker 2:But the advantage is that people go by and it's fun to see what they think. I had one guy look, he looked at I did a picture of some musicians and he said he's like, oh, that's me. They see themselves sometimes in it. They make comments that maybe you don't think of. Maybe in rural environments you get more, you learn more of the local things that you don't know. And when I worked on Marshall I was out there for a month and I thought there was another mural artist who did something out there but he worked on it in St Paul and then installed it and I thought he's missing this whole thing. Like I was there, you know people, you get kind of a feel for the town and the people and stuff.
Speaker 1:You kind of become part of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little bit, and so that's the fun part.
Speaker 1:What are some of the biggest challenges you faced as a muralist, especially when working on large scale projects?
Speaker 2:For me it's math, because I'm not good at math. So I did one in South Dakota that was 40 feet high and I remember it was really difficult for me even measuring up and trying to grid it out. At that size that's really nuts and that one other things like some of the physical things, like in the evening we'd get almost 90 degrees. It was facing west in South Dakota and all that stuff. But then the very last week I'd get up in the morning and it was 40, and I had hardly any clothes to wear or no gloves and I was freezing Wind.
Speaker 2:I don't like wind at all. That's a challenge. I mean, heights don't bother me, but uh, uh, you know when. When can be a real hassle, can knock your paints over and do all kinds of things.
Speaker 1:How do you keep your work fresh and innovative?
Speaker 2:I think always. I'm looking at everything in art. I enjoy art. I'm always looking at paintings, I'm always looking at what other people are doing, and I've always. You just pay attention to a lot of art and you think, well, I could do that, or you know you, you're always there, you know, trying to find something new that you like, or how can I improve some of my painting techniques, or anything like that.
Speaker 2:Do you just work murals or have you done other art or sculptures, or I do paintings and I do paintings for people, I do caricature art for people, I do drawings. You know there's hardly anything I don't do and I've done some design. I don't do a lot, much anymore, but if you remember the signs that used to surround the Mayo Civic Center that are not up anymore, I designed those signs and that was another oddity.
Speaker 1:So when you see some of your work go away, how do you feel about that?
Speaker 2:It's all karma To me. A certain amount of art, especially like it's performance art, a certain element is performance art. So you have a theater, you do a play, you get off, it's gone and you've performed. So I think part of mural art is the performance. I believe there was a. I read about a place down south and they had a city square and they would paint new murals every year and they'd paint over the old ones.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:And it was like that's what you do. It's kind of like sidewalk chalk art. That's what you do. It's kind of like sidewalk chalk art, so there's this sort of impermanence about it because the building might be torn down. So you have to not every, not all, and I believe that not all art has to last forever.
Speaker 1:What role does collaboration play in art, whether with community members, other artists or organizations?
Speaker 2:That's a good one because I've tried to figure out and I do do some collaboration. I did street art with our neighbors group in Rochester for years we painted streets. I've done things with schools I've done. When COVID was on, I did a piece for the Soldiers Field Park and I tried to figure out how I could get kids to help to do something with it. So I had something about masks and I cut out these shapes of masks and I gave it to one high school and two grade schools and they painted masks and then I just attached it. So you know, you can kind of find ways to include other people. So you know, you can kind of find ways to include other people and I like when I'm doing a job.
Speaker 1:I like talking to people and what they want, what they, like you know, get a feeling where their head's at. When you get a project from an organization or an individual, how much do they already have in mind? And when you touch the project I guess I'm thinking about this from an iterative process between you and your client, for example how does that work?
Speaker 2:It can work different ways. I did a project in Orinoco January and it was in the old school building in Orinoco. They bought it. It's now being used for events and there's a wall we school building in Orinoco. They bought it. It's now being used for events and there's a wall we did with all peonies and so she had drawings, she had pictures of the peonies. So that's one. You know. I knew right away what she was looking for, but it was a matter of getting the color scheme and everything right. Other times people you know ask for my you know. They tell me what they're thinking but they don't really know.
Speaker 1:Looking back on your career, what are you most proud of?
Speaker 2:I think I'm proud of the fact that I kept going. You know that I've always found it's something. I never passed up an opportunity, and that's what keeps as an artist. That's how you keep going, I think.
Speaker 1:What advice would you give to aspiring artists who might want to follow in your footsteps?
Speaker 2:Well, I guess I'd go back to that one. I would say never pass up an opportunity because you never know where it leads. And I have to say that something I would. I was thought in the back of my mind like if young people could know. So when I did the murals for the DNR and I did these few murals, you know, and I thought, well, that's really nice. You know, I I got. I never thought I'd be able to do this or dream to doing this, and I did some murals. I'll probably never get the opportunity again. And then later on in life, what am I doing? I'm doing all these murals. And how did that happen? You know, whatever you're doing, sometimes early in your life or early in your career, is important.
Speaker 1:It came full circle for you.
Speaker 2:It was like you know. I didn't think I would have a career. I never dreamt of it. It's just because I did those few, they considered me for the KRLC radio building.
Speaker 1:Do you have a wish list of murals you'd love to do for XYZ city or organization?
Speaker 2:Early in Rochester I thought it'd be nice to it's like the Ampey building or something in North Broadway. That's a big canvas. That would be nice to do something huge, although at this point in life I'm not sure it might be kind of big.
Speaker 1:Greg Wimmer, I really appreciate the conversation today, learning more about your stellar career as an artist, and it's been fascinating to see your work come to life in the Galleria. Best of luck to you and thanks for being our guest on the Growing Destinations podcast.
Speaker 2:Yes, and thank you Bill.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in to the Growing Destinations podcast and don't forget to subscribe. This podcast is brought to you by Experience Rochester. Find out more about Rochester, Minnesota, and its growing arts and culture scene, its international culinary flavors and award-winning craft beer by visiting experiencerochestermncom Music.
