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United Tribes
The United Tribes Mural features bold, graffiti-style typography that stretches across a long brick wall under an overpass in the Little Earth community. The words “United Tribes” dominate the composition, painted in large block letters outlined in deep navy and filled with gradient hues of tan, orange, and blue. The color transition give the look of a sunset across an open landscape, grounding the piece in the natural imagery of the plains and sky. Within the letters, subtle silhouettes of tipis and tree lines appear, linking the graffiti aesthetic with traditional Indigenous symbols of the local community. The layering of modern street art techniques and Native iconography visually represents a dialogue between generations a meeting of urban and ancestral identity. The mural’s placement under the bridge adds to its visual impact; it acts almost like a threshold between two worlds the built environment of the city below and the rooted Indigenous presence above where you can see a mural across the whole street. The clean, confident lines and harmonious color palette lend a sense of calm strength and unity. Despite being a simple text-based mural, it conveys a deep sense of belonging and pride. The formal balance between bold lettering and the soft colors gives the artwork both structure and emotional warmth, symbolizing stability and connection within the community it represents. -
Community Builders
“Community Builders” is a large-scaled piece of wall art. Taking up an entire building width and length, the mural is massive. Starting from the left, the mural consists of intricately painted bees, hovering around pink drooping flowers. Behind them, a honeycomb pattern. Moving to the left, a bright blue sky is present in the foreground with wispy clouds scattered about. Monarch butterflies just as detailed as the bees, fly above bright colored small flowers with small pink flowers. Throughout the painting are short purple flowers with yellow centers. An illusion of space is created, with the insects changing shapes, allowing the mind to see various spacial levels. The flowers maintain a uniform size throughout. The mural also maintains a 2-D form, allowing negative space to be filled with the sky. The majority of the art, like the plants and insects, have freeform shapes, exuding the idea of being unconstrained. This is contrasted by the sharp geometric hexagon shape of the honeycombs. A thick black line is used on the bees and butterflies, separating them from the flowers, who’s outlines are thin or nonexistent. Besides the black outlines and bees’ stripes, the colors on the mural are intensely bright. Varying shades of yellow are used throughout the honeycombs. The bees use a light yellow while the monarchs show a bright to dark orange gradient. The colors use bright greens, pinks, and deep purples. The warm colors of the wildlife create a sharp contrast against the cool blue background. The lighting is fairly consistent throughout, with no clear source, but a bright environment. However, the bright yellows in the honeycombs exude a sort of artificial light. The tones on the piece are almost entirely light in color, aside from some darker details on the flowers, bees, and butterflies. Texture is created on one of the plant types, with light green lines used on the leaves to create a natural ribbed look. The clouds are light and wispy, looking nearly identical to real life. The mural appears to be made up of exclusively spray paint, creating a unique texture against the brick wall. A uniform pattern is found throughout, although different sizes, the bees, monarchs, flowers, and honeycombs all take the same shape. -
Pinigigi Miigwech Pidamaya | Thank You
The scale of the mural is on the whole front of the building from side to side. It is about 10 feet tall all the way down and straight across. The composition of the piece is words with patterns of the rainbow, floral patterns, and line pattern designs. There are 3 words, pinigigi miigwech pidamaya which means thank you. The first word is situated above the second word, between the second and the third word there is an eagle motif which is the logo of the Division of Indian Work with some wood below it. The third word is above the second, but below the first. The base color of the mural is turquoise blue, the words are white with a black outline, and a rainbow shadow behind them. The rainbow shadow is stacks of color, with varying shades of blue, yellow, orange and red for every word. The words are crisp block font. Above the middle word, which is miigwech, there is a floral vine motif. The vine is deep green with black outlines and has symmetrical curling branches coming off of each side of the center pink flower that looks like a lotus. The branches have deep pink, deep purple, and deep blue leaves and flowers with a light version surrounding the deep color, with a black line outlining the light color. There are also four strawberries on the branches. Those are red with yellow seeds and deep green leaves. Below the word Pinigigi, there is a horizontal parallel line pattern. The first two layers of the pattern are curving lines that are deep purple with a light purple outlining it and symmetrical on either side of the middle point. The bottom 2 lines are the inverse of the above pattern with a deep green outlined by a light green. Below the third word Pidamaya, there are 8 point star patterns made out of individually colored diamonds. There are deep green and light green, deep purple and light purple, and brown/green and deep green stars. There is only the texture of the wall which is brick. Besides the shadows behind the words, there is no evidence of light in the mural. -
Little Ancestors & Land Back
“Little Ancestors” depicts two Indigenous female characters, one is wearing a hat, along with mushrooms, the sun, and a mountain, all smiling. They are in a nature scene with a river, trees, and the blue sky. It uses natural colors including blues, reds, and greens. They are bright in color, but remain something you would find in nature. The two human characters are placed in the foreground to emphasize their presence. The characters depict two native women. The texture is very smooth with only a little texture found on the trees. Otherwise, it would be smooth to the touch. The mural is drawn in a style known as kawaii. Kawaii is a Japanese artistic and cultural style that emphasizes the quality of cuteness using bright colors and characters with a childlike appearance. “Land Back” depicts fruit (strawberries, grapes, blueberries) and animals (a hummingbird and a frog) as its characters. They are all smiling. This mural uses bright pastel colors that are not natural including pink, blue, green, and purple. The title “Land Back” is drawn in bubble letters and centered on the wall which works to draw your attention immediately to the wording. The mural includes different colors of hearts, clouds, and sparkles in the background. This mural has little texture. Everything is very smooth besides the seeds drawn on the strawberries. -
Unci Maka
Composition: The mural features a balanced and symmetrical composition extending across a large exterior wall. Key focal points include the quilt star-like motif and the text “UNCI MAKA,” positioned centrally within the mural. The arrangement of the sunflowers, flowers, and flying creatures creates harmony and directs the viewer's eye along the length of the mural.
Color: The color palette of the mural consists of light blue as the background, contrasting with yellow for the sunflowers, red and orange for the quilt star motif, and purple-pink for the cone flowers. The use of color highlights key elements and directs the viewer’s attention toward the text and central quilt star motif.
Line: The mural includes a variety of line types, from thick outlines that define the primary shapes (such as the flowers, star, and insects) to the curves in the petals and bees’ wings. Curved lines dominate, giving the mural a sense of movement and flow. The straight lines in the text contrast with the rounded, organic forms, providing balance and structure. This contrast between straight and curved lines emphasizes the text, separating it from the surrounding elements.
Texture: The mural is painted on a rough wall, but the painted forms use smooth, solid color fills with consistent line work. The contrast between the wall’s physical texture and the visual appearance of the paint creates a dynamic effect. The physical texture of the wall connects the mural to its setting, interacting with natural light and changing its appearance based on the time of day.
Space: The mural uses a clear spatial arrangement, with flowers, text, and the star in the middle ground. Foreground elements include the larger flowers, like the sunflowers and cone flowers. The background is composed mainly of the blue sky and white clouds, establishing a sense of depth. The perspective remains flat, with elements on a single plane, maintaining focus on each object. Overlapping elements, such as the flowers, bees, and butterflies, create a layered visual experience. -
Celestial Embodiment
The mural is very large, spanning the entire length of the wall of a building. In the center of the mural, there is a young girl standing, wearing a red cloak. She is surrounded by what looks to be butterfly wings and circular lines. To the right and left of the center, there are focal points. To the right, there is a phoenix design spanning from the top to the bottom of the wall. To the left, there are sunflowers popping out. Throughout the mural, there are galaxy-like paintings flowing throughout the wall, they also have a water-like effect. The mural's background is mostly black or dark blueish, making the other pieces in the mural pop out. In addition, many of the colors in the background are white, with different shades of blue, purple, and pink, giving it a galaxy/celestial theme. The colors used in the focal points of the mural pop out from the galaxy-themed background as they are mainly red, yellow, and white. They are really outlined to stand out from the rest of the mural intentionally. The main lines used in the center of the mural are a bright yellow and red circular line to outline the young girl. This creates an emphasis on the young girl and gives the effect that everything else in the mural revolves around her. There are also straight lines towards the left side of the mural, signifying a symbol. The effects of the lines in the composition are quite significant as they stand out starkly in comparison to the flow within the rest of the mural. There are a variety of textures throughout. The texture of the lines are very smooth. However, there are varying mosaics in the mural adding texture to the pieces. For example in the middle of the red phoenix, there are mosaics in a diamond pattern. This emphasizes the level of detail put into the mural.