If you painted one image of your neighborhood, what would it include? Kids playing at the park? Folks window shopping downtown? Farmers plowing fields? 

Guido van Helten is a muralist from Australia. He features people on a wide range of canvases. He painted children digging in sand on the side of a dam in his home country. Images of open hands cover a water tower in Azrag, Jordan. Portraits of two men binding books appear on a building in Athens, Greece. 

In recent years, Mr. van Helten has portrayed working people and children on grain silos in the U.S. Midwest.  

Mr. van Helten spends time with the locals before he picks up a brush. He learns what makes a region distinct. Then he takes months to transform what is usually the largest structure in the area. 

The artist worked from a boom lift this past summer. It carried him 75 feet above the ground. He painted a grain elevator in Minot, North Dakota. Swish, swish. Back and forth. His brush turned the dull surface into art. He uses a special type of paint that absorbs and bonds with concrete. It blends well and lasts a long time. 

“I don’t want it to be bright,” he explains. “I want it to become part of the landscape.” 

The mural project in Minot is funded by donations. The total cost is about $350,000. Property owner Derek Hackett believes it’s worth it. He calls the drab building “a blighted property.” He says the mural helps to “resurrect its presence in our skyline.”

  Mr. van Helten enjoys making each old structure “a vehicle to carry an image of identity.” And he does it using the images of people, beautifully made in the image of God.

Why? God ordained that His image-bearers build one another up in community. Art has the power to beautify dull spaces by reflecting the dignity of a community’s people.