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Oct 4, 2009 10:41 pm US/Central
Finding Minnesota: Stadium Murals Celebrate State
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ―
When Minnesota Twins fans begin filing through the gates of Target Field next spring, they will notice tributes to some of the team's all-time greats, like Harmon Killebrew, Kirby Puckett and Rod Carew.
But Twin Cities artist
Craig David is also creating some elaborate stadium murals that will celebrate the state, its baseball fans and some of the lesser-known Minnesotans in Cooperstown.
David was chosen by the
Minnesota Ballpark Authority to create three murals near the light-rail stop that will highlight baseball, transportation and the environment.
He said he wanted to go beyond images of famous Twins.
"I mean the whole stadium is about the Twins," he said. "Let's talk about the people of Minnesota. And so that's where I got my cue, and that was the genesis of the piece."
He and his partner, Mary Aguilar, are currently cutting and piecing together bits of porcelain to form the baseball mural. It features a prominent image of Toni Stone of Minneapolis, the first woman to play in the Negro Leagues.
"Her claim to fame is she got a hit off of Satchel Paige," said David. "And she is in the Hall of Fame [in Cooperstown]."
It also features "Chief" Charlie Bender, an Ojibwe man from Crow Wing County. He was the first native Minnesotan to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
"His main claim to fame is that, well, he was a great ballplayer," said David. "[He] played for the Philadelphia Athletics. That's what they were called back then. And he won three World Series games in one World Series."
Mixed in are images of the fans who have turned out over the decades to support Minnesota baseball.
It's a delicate process taking place inside a shop in West St. Paul.
"When you're working in porcelain, it's pretty tough to make things super realistic, so I've taken quite a few liberties in terms of design," said David.
The first mural is already up near the transit stop, featuring images of an old locomotive on one end and a light-rail train on the other. In between are landmarks from Minneapolis and St. Paul, along with transit passengers.
David pointed to one of the most prominent characters: "If you see the old fellow with the beard, my idea with that was that, that was the old transit history welcoming the new riders in a new era of transit riding. So that was kind of an idea where we talked about history and the new trains that are to come."
Most fans passing by the murals won't know that David was the artist. But he hopes they'll gain a new appreciation for the state's baseball rich history.
"I'm so thrilled," he said. "And feel really lucky and blessed that I had the opportunity to put these together."
Craig David Art
Minnesota Ballpark Authority
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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