Art Mural Gets Students Thinking and Asking Questions

Native artist combines tangible images with scenes intended to trigger imaginations.

Some Duluth students will now have a lot to ponder as they walk through their school and look up.

What they are going to see is art. Not just any art, but a mural.

It now adorns Raleigh Edison Charter School and was done by local native artist Jonathan Thunder.

Thunder was on hand to talk to the kids Wednesday.

Part of the image is more traditional and concrete. Such as a birch bark canoe which once traveled Lake Superior, or a pictograph of a lynx that Thunder said is based on a pictograph found at the north end of the lake.

But the artist also wanted the youngsters’ imaginations triggered by the images and scenes.

“They’re sort of floating above sea smoke. Sea smoke is something that inspired me to fall in love with Duluth when I moved here ten years ago,” said Thunder.

“And this sort of dream-like world is something that is common in my practice. And it’s a way that I can tell stories and feature characters that exist inside of surrealism, and imagination and inspiration,” said Thunder.

He was pleased that the students had a lot of questions, and he could tell it got their “wheels turning.”

The school says it’s exciting for students–native and non-native–to be able to take in a piece of work that reflects the area’s Ojibwe history and heritage.

“It means a lot,” said Waabibizhiikwe Janssen, the school’s Indigenous Mentor and Tutor.

“Like being able to see a local artist be able to come in and do his work, and then have all these beautiful little beings come in and see his artwork and be inspired is just amazing,” said Janssen.

Being asked to do the project was an honor Thunder said, and he was thankful the school trusted him. He said that if we have a generation that is asking questions and thinking, then we’re in good shape.