New Mural Adds Pep To Downtown St. Cloud

(KNSI) – A new downtown mural is putting the cloud in Cloud Town.

The primer is up with the full painting expected to be finished by the end of the month. Artist Tara Aiken is hard at work on the side of the 7th Avenue North building, housing Security and Coin Pawn Shop.

She says the project follows a popular theme seen in cities across the U.S. “This mural was originally inspired by the traditional postcard murals that you see in a lot of different cities. It’s not going to look exactly like that, because we want to make sure it matches the building style and the architecture of downtown.”

The mural came about after collaboration between the Greater St. Cloud Development Corporation and the building’s owner, Chad O’Brien. When it is complete, dreamers walking by will have their head in the clouds, even with their feet planted firmly on the ground.

Aiken was asked what the most challenging aspect of the work is. She responded, “The design itself is not overly complex, but just the scale of it. It’s massive, and it’s on brick. Brick is notorious amongst muralists. It’s just a more difficult surface to work on.”

Aiken has been a full-time artist since the pandemic in 2020. She works with paints, both permanent and temporary. Aiken also specializes in chalk. She had a sketch on the sidewalk along 7th Avenue North during the recent Downtown Art Crawl. Her other passion is sneaker art.

This particular mural will be done before October. Aiken points out that starting next month, you never quite know what the weather will have in store.

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