Greta McLain
Owner and Artistic Director of GoodSpace Murals, has over 15 years of mural making experience. Greta uses muralism to explore the ways that art can bring communities together, the power of visual language to activate voice, and the potential of art as a vehicle for hands-on organizing and educating. She has created over 50 projects in and around Minneapolis and Saint Paul, throughout the US and in Argentina, France and Cuba. Greta works out of Minneapolis and travels around the country/world doing projects wherever community art can be activated as a tool for positive community engagement! She earned her BA from the University of California Davis and her MFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Artist Statement
"What is mental health? What does it mean to feel supported in all of who you are? In this piece I tried to create a visual that captures the unique, holistic caring that El Consorcio and it’s practitioner’s services offer for the Spanish Speaking and Latino communities in Minnesota. Hands clasped are the central image representing support and caring. Those hands are wrapped in flying ribbons of traditional textiles, alluding to the traditions that support us and create the backbone of our identities and sense of belonging. Flying through the composition are birds that have symbolic importance to different peoples of South and Central America: the Brown Eagle, the Colibri and the Quetzal. Also represented are monarch butterflies, representing the immigrant and immigration (the monarch migrates between MN and Mexico) and how that migration (those immigrants) transform our MN community into something beautiful, strong and sustainable (pollinators of our future). Circles found throughout the composition speak to commitment and El Consorcio’s commitment to care. Within the design one will also find the Stone Arch Bridge and the outline of the state of MN, celebrating our home here in Minnesota. On either end there are hands cradling the whole composition,their style and color speak to a greater symbolic holding or support system; holding for the patients, holding for the care providers and holding for our greater community health.".