It was 4 p.m. Wednesday at Grand Forks City Hall when the sounds of bluegrass floated through the hallways and stirred curious employees from their
desks.

In the atrium, a band played and new art pieces hung on the wall, inaugurating Mayor Mike Brownʼs Mayorʼs Choice Artist Program. The mayor himself
was in an ebullient mood, talking about one of his favorite topics.

Itʼs all about the quality of life, he said, because thatʼs how communities are really judged.
“We donʼt want to be the richest community in North Dakota,” he told the Herald, “we want to be the richest in quality of life.”

He doesnʼt have the funds for an artist-in-residence that he wanted, he said, but he can at least do this, a partnership with the North Valley Arts Council
that doesnʼt cost the taxpayers anything, not even the hors dʼoeuvres or the band.

The chosen artist for the next three months is Xavier Pastrano, a Sioux Falls, S.D., native and a graduate student in UNDʼs English Department, better
known in the arts community as a member of the North River Ramblers, the band that was playing.
His work ranges from black-and-white photos of street scenes in Norway to stenciled acrylic paintings. Theyʼre on display on the first and second floors of
the atrium in City Hall for about three months before the mayor chooses again.

Photos, stencils
Pastrano is a tall bearded fellow, who looked every inch the bohemian: A buttoned-up shirt, a vest, a pair of jeans, topped with a beard and a fedora. He
talks rapidly as if he has a lot to say, but doesnʼt want to take too much time saying it.

He said he got into photography while teaching at the American College of Norway in Moss, a small town by the fjord south of Oslo. In his free time, he
said, heʼd wander the streets looking for subjects.
Near the door to the Engineering Department, there was a tragicomic black-and-white of a bicycle that, stripped of parts, looked like the victim of street
violence. On the wall was a crudely spray-painted peace sign.

That seemed to him to be a contradiction, so thatʼs what he called the photo. Pastrano said he got into stencils to get out of a funk after his girlfriend broke up with him. Inspiration had run dry on his usual musical outlet, he said, so he turned to a friend who had gotten into stenciling. “I think artists, when they suffer most, theyʼre inspired most,” Mayor Brown said. But the stencils arenʼt just one-color like the sort youʼd see on street graffiti. Pastrano layers the stencils and uses bright primary colors.

By the door to the Finance Department, thereʼs a canvas with a stenciled hand holding a black handgun shooting blocks of colors that look a little like
stained-glass. Itʼs called “Bang!” Pastrano said some people tell him it delights them even though itʼs so violent. Thatʼs all right to him, he said, even though all he really wanted was to flesh out the image and make it longer; he wanted a big piece to hang on his bare walls.

For the public
Marie Strinden, NoVACʼs new executive director, said her group recommended Pastrano to Brown because stencils are an underrepresented media in the
local arts scene. Though anyone could apply on NoVACʼs website to be the next Mayorʼs Choice, she said the group prefers new artists or new styles
from existing artists.

Strinden said the mayorʼs office initially approached her to look for new art for the walls of City Hall. When she suggested focusing on a few artists with the
Mayorʼs Choice program, the mayor embraced it, she said.

For NoVAC, exhibiting art at City Hall is an ideal way to expose more city residents to art, she said. “I hope this shows people in Grand Forks that there is
importance to caring about the arts, too.”
To apply for the Mayorʼs Choice online: www.NoVAC.org. Visual arts are acceptable, but so are performing arts, which would be performed at City Hall.
Strinden said artists can submit one application and, even if not chosen, the group will keep it on file for future consideration.

Reach Tran at (701) 780-1248; (800) 477-6572, ext. 248; or send e-mail to ttran@gfherald.com.

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