Sphere of Influence

He's a North Dakota native who's traveled the world. Now he's back to his roots, so to speak, at Wonder Lanes, brightening the wall of the iconic bowling alley with his breathtaking artistry.

"My grandparents used to bowl at Wonder Lanes," muralist Shawn McCann said. "It's such an interesting full circle."

McCann, a world-renowned street artist and muralist, was raised in Wahpeton, N.D., but his great-grandparents Parley and Agnes McCann called New Rockford home. His grandparents Jerry and Shirley McCann raised his dad and uncle here in the 1960s and 70s, and his uncle Mike (McCann) was a graduate of New Rockford Central High School.

The retro vibe of the revived Wonder Lanes was McCann's inspiration for the mural he is painting on the east wall. Larger than life bowlers and other iconic bowling imagery symbolic of the "heyday" of the downtown recreation hub, painted in vibrant colors, are instantly visible as residents and visitors travel west down Central Avenue. In street art terms, this is a "legal wall," a work he was commissioned to do.

McCann's work in New Rockford is funded through a grant from the Afterschool Alliance, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. that works to ensure students have access to affordable, quality afterschool programs. During his first week in New Rockford, he instructed students who were enrolled in the Rocket Camp summer school program at NR-S. Students saw a slideshow of his works, and McCann also talked about the different aspects of art. He even gave them an assignment to design a 50-by-50 foot mural on the side of a building. The students were encouraged to use their creativity to dream up a variety of concepts for the space. He also used technology to connect them with another artist, Ahmad Raza, Pakistan's first (and most well known) 3D street artist. McCann met Raza in Dubai during a street art festival. Raza took the students on a virtual tour of murals he is working on in Pakistan and gave them feedback on their work.

McCann has been enamoured with the arts since he was very young. After high school, he pursued a bachelor's degree in illustration from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

He began his career with print illustration work. He has illustrated 35 books, including two that were featured at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, alongside Judy Bloom and Goosebumps series author, R.L. Stine.

"The Sick Bug" written by Susie Bazil was one of the books he illustrated that was featured at the festival. They even made a sequel, "The Sick Bug Goes to School." A quick Google search identifies that used hardcover copies of both books are available for purchase on Amazon. Another children's book McCann illustrated, "E for Election Day" by Gloria Gavris, was a Scholastic Book of the Month.

As book illustration work waned during the great recession, he fell into street art, where he could be in a different place each week or month, meeting new people and seeing new places. Street art is, by definition, "artwork that is created in a public space, typically without official permission." He went from filling 11-inch tall pages with his creation, to projecting his ideas onto walls, ceilings, sidewalks and streets of up to 5,000 square feet.

Street art affords him the opportunity to see the world. "I've done an amazing amount of travels I never thought I'd be able to do," he said. He has visited most U.S. states, although he hasn't been to Alaska or Hawaii, he notes. Several significantly more "artistic" places, which also happen to be in foreign countries, are among his most memorable. India, Dubai (United Arab Emirates), and China are his top three. McCann was among 20 artists worldwide at Dubai Canvas, a huge invite-only street art event in Dubai. Artists in a variety of genres were represented, including 3-D, sand, murals and chalk. His piece, which was installed on a wall and floor, is a 3-D painting of a steampunk with his hand reaching out. When viewed from the right angle, a person seated on the ground looks like he is sitting in the steampunk's hand. To view this and other McCann work, go to shawnmccann.com or connect with him on Facebook or Instagram.

"Street art is definitely where my heart is," McCann said.

While in the area, McCann is also organizing a few chalk festivals. This past weekend, he traveled 60 miles south to the Jamestown Chalk Festival, which also featured demonstrations and live music. He describes chalk festivals as events where you "shut down the streets and basically have artists from all over the country create masterpieces in chalk on the asphalt."

From Maple Grove, Minn. to Venice, Italy, McCann's chalk installations have been appreciated by hundreds of thousands of people at a time. In Venice, organizers close part of the airport so artists can chalk on the runway. They bring in artists from 30 different counties, and 200,000 people wander around and gawk at their work.

Although street art is appreciated throughout the world, it has just recently begun entering the collective consciousness of North Dakotans. As recently as eight years ago, McCann said there were very few murals or art events in his home state.

"When I first started my career, I had to go overseas or to other states," he said. However, in the past six or seven years, he has spent a lot more time creating closer to home. "It's fun to see how it's taken off in the Midwest," he said.

McCann has worked in at least three dozen N.D. communities, if he includes book tours he was on during his illustration days. In fact, McCann was painting a mural in Watford City last month, when a friend of Sarah Smith Warren's urged her to contact him. Not knowing his story, Smith Warren opened the conversation with this, "we're a little town in North Dakota you've probably never heard of," in a voice message. "He then called me back and left a message saying he heard of New Rockford and knew he wanted to hear more because of his family connection!" Smith Warren recalled.

"It's been really fun having North Dakota embrace the arts," McCann said. In the first week he was in town, three other business owners asked him what it would take to get a mural on their building. "It's exciting that they are thinking about it," he said.

The lifespan of a mural is 15-20 years, McCann said. However, the potent UV rays of the sun can fade the paint quickly, so the art has more longevity when installed on a surface that isn't subjected to full sun.

His most commonly "shared" mural on social media is a giant squirrel on the side of a design firm. If you stand on the sidewalk at a certain angle, it appears as if the squirrel is taking a photo of you.

Sharing is support, and it's from that support that McCann keeps forging his artistic path. "Whenever there's a person or individual who shows promise in music and arts, people should encourage and support them as much as they can," he said. "Without that support, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today."

McCann plans to finish the Wonder Lanes mural by the end of this week, just in time for New Rockford residents of the past and present to gather for the Independence Day celebration.