Mainly clear. Low 66F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph..

Mainly clear. Low 66F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.

The mural along the flood wall in North Mankato was painted by artist Jordyn Brennan, who has painted several others in Iowa and Wisconsin.

The mural includes images of the river as well as smaller images of Tanley Field, a hockey rink and the silhouette of a cyclist.

Historic Tanley Field is among the images depicted in Jordyn Brennan’s mural.

The mural along the flood wall in North Mankato was painted by artist Jordyn Brennan, who has painted several others in Iowa and Wisconsin.

The mural includes images of the river as well as smaller images of Tanley Field, a hockey rink and the silhouette of a cyclist.

Historic Tanley Field is among the images depicted in Jordyn Brennan’s mural.

Jordyn Brennan grew up in a Wisconsin family that loved sports. Eventually she ended up at Upper Iowa University to play softball. She took classes in psychology and science, she said, but she was always drawn back to drawing and art.

It seemed to be where life was taking her.

That love of art took her this summer to North Mankato where she was hired by the city to paint a mural on a short, wide strip of flood wall near the intersection of Lookout Drive and Lee Boulevard.

The idea for a mural was first introduced a few years ago by North Mankato Mayor Mark Dehen, said Michael Fischer, the city’s community development director. Because the “canvas” is a part of the flood protection plan, permission was required by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. And that’s a process that takes time.

In the meantime, the city worked with Mat Greiner, executive director of Twin Rivers Council of the Arts, to help maneuver through another complicated process: issuing a Request for Qualifications, the first step in finding an artist.

“The city of North Mankato approached Twin Rivers about getting help to produce this mural,” Greiner said. He said the arts council developed the project and ran a competitive call for local and regional artists. “Jordyn won over several exciting candidates.”

With the field narrowed to three artists, each was asked to submit initial ideas for the project. From those inspirations, city representatives worked to bring in more specific features. Final choices were made by city staff and the City Council, and the mural was paid for through the city’s general fund, Fischer said.

“We wanted to incorporate some history in it, and Jordyn was very open-minded” to our ideas, Fischer said.

“I think I’m very influenced by nature,” Brennan said. With the location situated between the bluffs and the river, her ideas that incorporated nature were logical choices, resulting in a mural that far exceeded expectations, Fisher said.

Because traffic travels fast past that spot, Brennan wanted to capture people’s eyes. Left of center of the mural there is a monarch butterfly alighted on an outstretched fingertip. It is balanced right of center by a hand that has water flowing between its fingers. Cradled between them is the river, complete with an angler and canoeist.

Sprinkled throughout the mural are pink flowers that serve both as a consistent image and divider for other specific local images.

From the left, people will see an historic river hockey rink scene, the silhouette of a family out for a walk, Minnemishinona Falls along the Judson Bottom Road, the river scene that incorporates a map of the streets, North Mankato’s former Tanley Field baseball park and the silhouette of a bicyclist.

Triangles are a repeated pattern, echoing both the shape of the wall and the city’s location at the southern tip of Nicollet County. It provides a subtle backdrop to all of the individual images.

“I would say butterflies are symbolic of rebirth and growth and hope for the future,” she said regarding the choice of that central image. “So that’s something I wanted to include. Plus, you just see them everywhere around here.”

Brennan worked about 65 hours over one week to complete the mural. She started early each day, she said, and worked until the heat of the sun dried her paints too quickly to effectively work with them. As luck would have it, the week of her residency had temperatures in the 90s.

So, she worked as long as she could each day, then visited sites throughout the city for additional inspiration. More inspiration came from the horn honks and shout-outs she received while working. Interactions such as these not only encourage her but can also lead to more work.

On her first mural job, she said, “I hardly got paid. But I was so excited to do it. Then having that experience led to the next job and the next job.

“Somebody just happened to be driving through,” she said, “and they wanted a mural done all the way out in Utah. So, it was cool to be able to travel out there.”

Although she splits her time now between murals and teaching online classes at her master’s degree alma mater, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, she would love to make murals a bigger part of her work life. In this regard, each mural is like a giant business card, she said.

One reason her time in Mankato was so short is that she has several more murals lined up this summer. For an outdoor muralist, summer is her studio time and it must be used wisely. Mankato’s Silo Project mural by Guido Van Helten next to Veterans Memorial Bridge thrilled her because she has painted on silos, too.

Her website at www.jordynbrennan.com shows some of her previous work. There are silo murals in Wisconsin: Cow Silo in Clintonville, Radies Silo in Marion, as well as a silo in New London. In addition, she has painted Love-Friendship-Energy in Park City, Utah, and Osborne Nature Center and Concrete Garden in Alkader, Iowa.

The 24-year former softball player is building quite a portfolio. And because murals are becoming more popular community projects, her future looks bright.

Greiner sees this work representing an important evolution of public art.

“I think growth in the arts sector relies on private and local public spending relying more on partnership and recognizing fair payment for creative labor,” Greiner said. “North Mankato did a very good thing by seeing this work as a civic investment in quality of life.”

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