MCAD Minneapolis College of Art and DesignPlanning & Economic
Development
MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor Eugene Maxwell and Hop ' s City Council Members
FROM: Kersten Elverum, Directo P nning & Development
DATE: September 28, 2012
SUBJECT: Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) Artstreet Project
Hopkins Artstreet installed two sculptures through a unique collaboration with the
Minneapolis College of Art and Design. The goal of the collaboration was to give MCAD
students an opportunity to have their art publicly -displayed in an outdoor gallery while
expanding the scale and materials of Artstreet sculptures.
Purr- a sculpture by artist Sreekishen Nair was inspired by watching how his cats enjoy
the garden. The curling shapes emerging from the stylized cat represent the "purrs"
emitting from the contentment that the garden always inspires. These rise and wrap
around abstract images of flowers, flies and other natural shapes that melt into each
other and play on the natural features of the single section of tree trunk.
Shannon Estlund's piece, Fertile Ground, was inspired by an abandoned house in the
woods. The house and its gradual deterioration has been the inspiration for several
series of paintings and sculptures. The shape of a modern house is used as a way to
think about modern suburban homes and their relationship to nature, attachment and
aesthetic issues.
Nair received his BFA from the College for Creative Studies (Detroit, MI) in 1996. He
currently works as a freelance artist in South Minneapolis and is enrolled in the MFA
program at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Estlund is a second year graduate student at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design
with a concentration in Painting and Sculpture. Estlund is from Jacksonville, Florida,
and received her BFA in Painting at the University of Florida in Gainesville. She
currently lives in Columbia Heights with her husband and two daughters.
Both artists will be recognized at the October 2, 2012, City Council meeting.