If you’ve driven through downtown Crookston, you’ve probably noticed the mural on the south side of Scott’s True Value Hardware Store. It is a project currently being done by Trey Everett, who works part-time with the Northwest Minnesota Arts Council and doing some personal artwork on the side.
Everett has done some smaller murals in the past but said the stars finally aligned with this project. “I’ve wanted to do a large mural for a long time now, and earlier this year, the owner of True Value Hardware (Scott Maves) mentioned painting something on the side of their building,” said Everett. “So I started thinking more about it, decided to write a grant which was accepted, and so here we are.”
The project is called the True Value Mural Project and was made possible with the grant given to Everett from The Northwest Minnesota Arts Council through their arts and cultural heritage fund. The mural will cover the entire side of the building.
Everett said it was an easy decision what he wanted his mural to look like. “The theme is Unity and Diversity, so the image is six different hands with different skin tones,” said Everett. “The Unity piece is this white piece of string or ribbon that will be lightly connected to all the hands to show that you can’t force Unity but that it’s what we need to strive for.”
There were different ideas given for the mural, but Everett wanted to challenge himself with something big. “There were other suggestions given for it, but I kind of wanted something bigger, and Scott the owner of True Value said do whatever you want which was nice,” said Everett. “I then came up with this design and showed it to Scott because I wanted him to be okay with it, and he said it was great.”
There will also be wording regarding unity and diversity inside the hands, although Everett isn’t sure what that will look like yet. There will also be wording on the mural regarding the city of Crookston.
The project is well underway, and Everett hopes to complete it sometime in August of this year. “I’m hoping to have it complete by mid-August; it’s taking me a lot longer than I initially planned,” said Everett. “I initially thought maybe four weeks, and I’m on my third, and it’s about halfway. So will see when it gets finished by.”
