Designed by Roger Nelson and painted by Nelson, Marilyn Lindstrom, Ta-coumba Aiken and others in 1978, “Berlin Wall” is one of the most intriguing and unknown murals in the Twin Cities. It’s painted on the back of the K-Mart on Lake Street and a full view of the mural is obscured by trees and a chain link fence.

Oddly enough, it’s a protest mural painted on the very building the mural protests. The mural depicts a man closing a door and walking away in various panels, interrupted by images of a battleship, its guns turned towards the viewer. The symbolic imagery reflects the neighborhood angst over an economic development project that went south, forcing the city to accept K-Mart’s demands to build on top of Nicollet Avenue. Allowing a mural on the north wall had been a concession from K-Mart, though they clearly paid little attention to the content of the mural.

“The businessman in the panels represents Kmart and its allies,” Lindstrom told the Twin Cities Daily Planet in 2008. “As you follow the mural from left to right, you see him closing a door on the neighborhood—which is represented by a battleship symbolic of the struggle over the store’s construction.”

Lindstrom and Aiken refurbished the mural in the 1990s, though it needs attention again today. However, refurbishment has taken a backseat as Mayor R.T. Rybak has called for the reopening of Nicollet Avenue.

“The Faces of Our Future Reflect Our Past” mural was a 1995 Neighborhood Safe Art Project led by Marilyn Lindstrom with mentor artists Carlos Menchaca and Mali Kouanchao with the help of 14 youth. The mural is on the side of Hennepin County’s Early Childhood Resource Center on Lake Street in Minneapolis.

The mural is a multicultural mix of parents taking care of children. On the corner text is written across a boy’s shirt about seeing across racial lines and how children are our future. There’s also a naked woman standing over the corner of Lake Street, which is a bit jarring when you drive by.

This pedestrian bridge rising over Robert Street in St. Paul’s West Side neighborhood was painted in 1997 by Carlos Menchaca, John Acosta, Marilyn Lindstrom and several assistants, including Mai Houa Thao, Pa Houa Yang, Pa Haua Thao and Mai Shong Thao. It’s called “The Bridge Which Brings Cultures Together” and features people of different cultures on the walkway above the road and basic symbols on either wall. The middle portion of the support beams features faux-brick painting.

Curiously, the actual walkway of the bridge appears to have been painted several times as part of two projects unconnected with the bridge painting, Gateway Mural Project ’91 and a Mural Project ’97. Both are in considerable disrepair and appear to have used a less unified approach.

This public art park was created in 1991-1992 by a group of six guest artists and 30 youth volunteers led by Marilyn Lindstrom. It includes a mural on the wall (which seemed to be removed in winter when I visited) and a mosaic arch (which appears to have replaced an original arch that wasn’t a mosaic).

This 1999 mural on the side of Running Wolf Fitness Center in Minneapolis was created by Marilyn Lindstrom with help from 20 young artists and guest artists Robert DesJarlait, Francis Yellow, Wallace Hill, Andrew Hill, Neng Lee, assistant Rush Merchant and co-director Gustavo Lira. The mural includes 12 elements essential to human life that the young people came up with: hope, justice, trust, family, love, freedom, purpose, respect, community, peace, basic human needs, collective work and responsibility.

Learn more about this community project and director Marilyn Lindstrom.