MURAL MAKERS
The Bloomington Ferry
Mural Artists: The Voorhees Art Collective
Location: Bloomington, MN
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This past year we were commissioned to create a mural on a new building in Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. After digging into the local history, we discovered that the town owes its existence to its proximity to a natural bend in the Minnesota River. Originally, this bend was a place where native tribes would cross the river. Eventually, a trading post and fort sprang up and with it, a hand-pulled ferry. The ferry-pullers would heave and ho as they hefted the heavy hemp rope attached to the modest flatboat ferry. The ferryman would guide the vessel across the river.
Once we found The Bloomington Ferry in our research and started sketching out its possibilities, we knew we had our idea. We also learned that the Bloomington Ferry was eventually replaced by a bridge. We decided to place a vestige of a bridge in the distance behind the riders, an homage to the passing of time and the jobs it will inevitably render obsolete.
About the Mural:
Name: The Bloomington Ferry
Size: 25’ x 125’
Products used: Golden Paintworks Mural
& Theme Paint
See it at:
Carbon31 Apartments, 8100 31st Ave S,
Bloomington, MN 55425
About the Maker
The Voorhees Art Collective is composed of the husband and wife team, Tyler and Ashley Voorhees. Tyler has an art degree and has been a full-time artist for eight years and counting, and primarily works in collage and painting. Ashley holds business and graphic design degrees and has been steering the rudder of their art business since its inception. Together, they collaborate on large art projects consisting of murals and sculpture along with the upbringing of their progeny.
Since 2015, Tyler has been studying the history of work through The Jobs of Yesteryear, a series of mixed media paintings that depict historic jobs using his distinctly lanky figures. As a product of these studies, Tyler has completed 295 paintings and gathered countless fascinating stories about how the life of the worker has radically changed in the past two centuries.
Bringing this theme into the realm of public art, Tyler and Ashley launched The Jobs Project in 2018, which celebrates and honors the world’s workers through murals and sculpture. So far, they’ve completed eight projects: seven murals in the US and abroad (Morocco, Mexico, Belgium) and The Lamplighter Sculpture, a towering 11-foot interactive piece. By creating these pieces, they aspire to tell the unique stories of each community’s jobs and how the community’s workers have shaped their cities, towns, and villages.
What is your creative process like when making murals?
Each piece begins with research. We gather as much information and images as we can pertaining to the history of past workers in that area. We talk to people who live there about their area’s stories and ask local museums and historical societies for photos and facts. After breathing all of this in, we dump it in the think tank and let it simmer. Typically one or two ideas worth exploring make it out of the furnace and we work together to follow these threads to see where they lead. At some point, the best idea makes itself known and then it’s time to hammer it into shape.
Tyler draws, cuts, paints, and sketches, and Ashley works digital wizardry while confidently guiding the process. We combine our distinct compositional eyes to find our best possible vision, with special consideration to the size, shape, and texture of the wall where the mural will live. There is a lot of give and take and debate, and through much trial and plentiful error, the final idea is brought into existence. We call this process marriage counseling.
Do you have any other projects coming up that you’d like to share anything about?
We are currently working on an indoor mural for a couple of collectors that will feature Tyler’s collage process in addition to the painting. Adding the subtle dimension and texture of collaged paper to a mural is an exciting new direction to explore and we’re interested to see where it takes us.
We have other irons in the fire but nothing else worth barking about just yet.
See more of the Voorhees work:
Patreon: patreon.com/voorheesartcollective
Website: tylervoorheesart.com
Facebook: tylervoorheesart
Instagram: tylervoorheesart
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