By Katie Havranek

The Resident Hall Council chose the mural design, created by Tatiana Craine ’11 to adorn the wall of 30 Mac. Craine will receive a fifty dollar prize as well as the chance to create a lasting piece of art to be painted before the end of the semester. “This is a new tradition,” Elicia Johnson ’10, Resident Advisor for the Wallace basement explained, “Every year there is going to be new artwork.”

The mural is part of Resident Life’s initiative to foster community building in 30 BigWall. “I think it’s definitely a positive ResLife program,” Johnson said.

“I heard about the mural contest about a month ago from my RA,” Craine said. The mural is called “Connection” and is meant to demonstrate the community within the 30 Mac, Bigelow, and Wallace community.

“I really tried not to discriminate against anyone’s identities and ideas, and I thought that an ocean theme would be perfect for such a project.” Craine wrote in her artist statement, “Things at Macalester are very fluid: personalities, workloads, sexualities, classes, activities, feelings, thoughts, behaviors, ideas.”

The mural space is fifteen by six feet and will most likely be painted on wood with acrylic. The oceanic theme is meant to represent a “feeling of cohabitation and existence with each other in a large space,” Craine explained, “Macalester students transcend country borders and live together in harmony akin to the life in the oceans which really are all interconnected.”

There is a community involvement element planned. “Everyone will have a chance to write their name around the border of the picture,” Johnson said. Residents of 30 BigWall will also be invited to paint the ocean by dance, sponge, finger, or splatter painting using a variety of colors for the background. Craine plans to then go back and paint details. Though there is no definitive date for this to occur, the event is tentatively scheduled for next week though it may not take place before next semester.

The mural is centered around two whales that is reminiscent of the yin yang symbol that is intended to represent “our wild sides and our quiet sides,” Craine outline in her statement, “We’ve all got different facets to our personalities that I wanted to embrace in the mural.”

Surrounding the whales will be trees that symbolize the “grounded” aspect of student life at Macalester. Using the trees, Craine also hopes to incorporate an earthier tone and recognize Macalester student commitment to environmental issues.

Many brightly colored fish that embody the student community that has students with “different backgrounds, sizes, shapes, likes and dislikes. I hoped to make the brilliant colors and sizes and types of fish as diverse as the 30BigWall community,” Craine wrote. She hopes to convey the diversity of the students through the fish that will be painted throughout the mural.

The fish, whales and trees will be painted exclusively by Craine next semester.

“I am ecstatic,” Craine said, “art is a huge passion of mine and the chance to represent my school and myself means a lot to me.”

“Tatiana Craine is an amazing artist,” Wallace resident Seth Kreielsheimer ’11 said, “I’m really excited to how much her mural is going to help in the beautification of the building.”

Craine said, “I hope you find my work inspiring; a lot of time, effort and love has gone into it.