I’m Molly McLain. I’m an artist, born, raised in North Dakota. I’ve left the prairie a few times saying I’d never come back. I always come back, and here I am to stay. I think I got into mosaics in 2012. I was living in Minneapolis with some artists that were doing public art in their neighborhoods and specifically doing community gardening and then mosaics on planters. The project was called Semia, which means seed in Spanish, so they were planting seeds of positivity through art and gardening. It was at that moment I saw the power of public art, the way it can transform a space and even claim space from taggers and graffitists.

I was really excited about mosaics. I had done collage throughout my life, in both high school and college. I did a lot of mixed media and really found a home in my art in mosaics.

This piece is a blend of Swedish and Norwegian folk art. Both my grandmothers are 100% Norwegian, and I wanted to connect with that heritage. When I was working as an artist in residence at the art center in Jamestown, North Dakota, I was introduced to Troy Geist, the North Dakota Council on Art state folklorist. He encouraged me to do a folk art apprenticeship, which I did with a Grand Forks artist named Piper Bloomquist and learned Norwegian rosemaling and Swedish dalmaling. They’re separate things. I did a naughty thing here with this design because I blended Swedish and Norwegian, which you are not supposed to do in folkart. But I really love both of those designs, so this column represents Norwegian heritage and some Swedish folk art elements. Specifically, the white flower in the middle is very Swedish dalmaling style. The rest of it has a lot of rosemalling scroll elements.

This was an indirect method with mosaics. I actually made it in my kitchen and living room on two tables. It’s glued on mesh and then applied with thinset concrete and grouted over like in Roman mosaics. People are still uncovering those centuries later, so my hope is that this mosaic column will withstand the elements of North Dakota weather and will be enjoyed for many years to come. It was a real pleasure and joy to be a part of this Art Alley and do this project.