Article written by Gavia Yount
Fruits of Labor
“Fruits of Labor” came out of Trask’s effort to depict and express his wish for prosperity in International Falls. Across the mural, various figures engage in different types of labor connected to the region. Three clouds in the shape of horses represent prosperity – the fruits Trask hopes for from the labor of the town’s residents.
The mural also expresses five worldviews Trask taught in his K-12 art curriculum, “World Artistic Understanding.” He teaches his students that everyone’s thought system expresses one of five basic worldviews: self-, group-, general consensus-, power-, and other-mindedness. Trask depicts these differing perspectives in various ways throughout the mural. For instance, some figures have their arms outstretched in gratitude, ready to receive, depicting the other-mindedness worldview. Another, also with his arms outstretched, imagines the power he could wield as he looks at the rapids of the falls – the falls that once existed on Rainy River before the paper mill was built there in 1910. In the bottom left-hand corner of the mural, five figures (one depicted as an empty chair to invite the audience in) representing the five worldviews sit around a table and express their perspectives to each other.
Trask describes each of the five worldviews as follows:
- Self-centeredness: a focus on oneself, which might take the form of selfishness or narcissism
- Group-centeredness: a focus on one’s social or cultural group
- General consensus: belief in a popular vote system where if everyone votes, things will work out all right. The weakness of this view, for Trask, is voting systems’ vulnerability to cheating and censorship.
- Power: acceptance of an uneven power structure, especially in a system where the state takes care of things and everyone else is just a worker
- Other-mindedness or love: thinking of and helping others more than oneself. Love, for Trask, is the greatest reason to do something – there is sacred morality in giving oneself for others.
Border
“Border” was primarily inspired by Trask’s experiences growing up in International Falls in the early 1950s. “I understood the rhythms, the nostalgia… humming, vibrant… I just put my feelings together on that.”
The city scene on the lefthand side of the mural depicts the atmosphere of downtown International Falls at the time. Trask would pass by the scent of popcorn coming from the popcorn wagon while walking down the street. He had four or five 1953 Chevys; one of them, gifted to him from his father, had a red top like the one depicted in the mural. The Border Theatre, with its big red sign shown in the mural, was a performance venue with unique architecture; a circular staircase led down to a candy bar before one entered the theatre. The theatre itself featured a wide variety of performance acts – Trask remembers in particular a hypnotist, who would make some classmates bark like dogs or sing Elvis Presley’s “Hounddog.”
The lake scene on the righthand side of the mural Trask sketched while sitting in a sailboat anchored in a bay on Rainy Lake. Using the aerial painting technique to create a sense of mistiness and depth, Trask captures another important aspect of the atmosphere of International Falls. Architectural pillars on the side of the building itself inspired the painted archways: “There were natural pillars in the building section, so I just used them.”
Elks
This mural, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, and other organizations, followed the “Explore Minnesota” initiative by the state government to promote tourism and travel in the state. The mural features a popular local activity: fishing on Rainy Lake. Though the text was intended to follow the “Explore Minnesota” theme, Trask chose to use his creative license and paint “Discover” instead.
Indeed, for a while the mural just said “Disco Rain.” Trask was halfway through painting the word “Discover” when drops of rain started falling. But he continued, and, providentially, he finished painting “Rain” just as a huge rainstorm started pouring down that lasted several weeks!
Trask went out to Hale Bay on Rainy Lake for inspiration on this mural. Not having access to underwater photography equipment, he modeled the fish featured in the mural after pictures he took with a Pentax camera inside a bottle. The five species of fish in the mural are an indication of the five worldviews central to Trask’s “World Artistic Understanding” teaching practice, described in more detail at the “Fruits of Labor” mural.
Iltis
The creation of this mural came after the Indian statue, which had stood for a long time on the corner of Iltis Drugstore, was returned to International Falls after having mysteriously disappeared in the 1970s. Iltis Drugstore and the Indian statue are featured on the lefthand side of the mural, commemorating the return of the statue to the community. The actual statue now resides in the International Falls Public Library.
The mural depicts International Falls in a range of times in its history together in one image, though much of Trask’s direct inspiration came from his memory of the hustle and bustle of the town in the early 1950s – a heyday era for the community. Some of the buildings depicted in the mural include the National T grocery store where Trask’s mother used to work and the neighboring Wolfe Hardware store. Other images in the mural speak to the more distant history of the town and region. The car depicted in the mural was the first car in the nearby community of Birchdale. In the middle of the mural, at the end of the street, is the paper mill office, built in 1910 – a building that still stands just a few blocks down from the mural. And the dirt road with boardwalks by the buildings gives a nod to the days of the Rainy Lake gold rush in the late 1800s, when International Falls’ streets, containing the tailings of gold mines, were said to be ‘paved with gold…’
The mural is also a monument to the thirteen people who lost their lives in the burning of a building that used to be in front of the mural, where you now stand; a building with a clothing store for children called Jack and Jill downstairs and apartments upstairs. Trask considers the mural to be a tribute to them.
City of Destiny
This mural was created for the paper mill in International Falls, to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2010. Trask decided to make this mural a continuation of the Iltis mural he had made ten years prior on the same wall – a location that happened to be very near the actual mill. Trask used a historical photo for the large painted figure of E.W. Backus. Backus is well known in the area for establishing the dam and papermill and with it, International Falls – a town Backus saw as an industrial “City of Destiny.” Trask used another historical photo as a model when painting the mill in its early days, with its log drives on the river and its piles of logs and sawdust right next to the water.
VFW
When he was asked to create a mural on the side of the VFW, Trask initially considered featuring a collection of smaller symbols, such as soldiers in battle, but decided instead on a simpler design featuring a large national symbol: the bald eagle. An image of a bald eagle in an Ideals periodical captured Trask’s imagination as a child, influencing his creation of the VFW mural. Before painting the mural, Trask made a smaller painting which he used as a model. That painting is now hanging in the Veterans Lodge in Backus Community Center.
About the artist
Bruce Trask is a Christian artist from International Falls. He graduated from Falls High School in 1965 and earned his BFA from the Minneapolis School of Art and Design in 1970. After that, wanting to expand and hone in his skills as an artist, Trask traveled all across North America to work as an artist and witness artists of all kinds in their trade. In his travels, he learned not only artistic practices, but a wide scope of cultures and perspectives of the world. Trask has displayed his work in galleries in New York, Louisiana, Hawaii, California, Mexico, and right across the border in Canada as well as in his home region of northern Minnesota. Some of Trask’s (literally) biggest projects include several murals across International Falls and nearby communities, six of which are described here in this walking tour.
Trask learns how to talk about art through teaching it. He earned his Master of Education degree from the University of Minnesota, Duluth and taught K-12 art classes in northern Minnesota for around 30 years. He shares his World Artistic Understanding curriculum with his students, teaching about other cultures so that his students have the tools to be artists themselves.
Trask creates his artwork out of a deep sense of intuition, faith, and gratitude. As he works, he trusts the process: “What you think about when you’re doing these things: pray, and then trust…I’m on the right track, doing the right thing.” This trust, consequently, leads to further learning. Though the initial ideas often come from outside him, this enhances rather than hinders Trask’s creative process.
Creating a mural is a lot of hard work. Trask must work quickly when painting – sometimes the brushes can dry out almost as soon as they hit the brick. Meanwhile, the buckets of different paint colors are arranged in a specific, alphabet-like order so that he knows which color is which, even in the dark, and he can work in all kinds of conditions.
Trusting his inspiration and ideas, Trask creates his art for others. “Trying to understand the world, and to teach it,” he leaves behind a large plate of food for thought for the community in the form of paint on a wall.
The 2024 mural restoration project was made possible through the generous support of:
