Local artist brings beauty to unexpected places

When south Minneapolis public artist Dani Bianchini is focused on a project, the world fades away.

"It’s sort of like meditation. You’re so into it, you forget about the rest,” she said. "I love it, it’s like making a puzzle. Put it together and once it’s done, it’s amazing."

Bianchini was raised in Argentina and moved to the U.S. when she was 19. She says that’s when she fell in love with Minnesota.

Her latest work: A 90-foot mural on the Hastings riverfront. The project was delayed two years because of the pandemic.

Bright vibrant colors are interspersed with even more brilliant pieces of mosaic.

"It is the sun, we wanted to shine, we wanted it to be our shining future,” Bianchini said. “We wanted to make sure we talked about the importance of the Mississippi River and the St. Croix River and all the water that surrounds the area.”

Bianchini says the mural reflects growing diversity in Hastings and the change in seasons. While she enjoys painting, she’s clearly passionate about mosaic art made from stained glass, porcelain tile and mirrors.

"I think it’s like seeing the sunshine after a lot of cloudy days,” Bianchini said, smiling. “You go outside and you see art that is beautiful, that is shiny and is bright — that has colors."

This is not the only place you’ll see her mosaic art.

In St. Paul’s Rice Park, Bianchini has transformed the functional into something beautiful.

“We had these trash cans that hadn’t been updated in decades, looking kind of tired,” explained Joe Spencer, the president of the St. Paul Downtown Alliance. “We put out a call for proposals to bring performances or art into downtown.”

Bianchini answered that call with an idea to add mosaic designs to the outside of trash cans placed in public areas. Since 2019, she’s made about 10 trash cans a year into a kind of street art.

“The idea was to transform these kind of ugly, tired pieces of street furniture into these gleaming jewels,” Spencer said. “Dani makes sure that each one is reflective of the immediate environment around it.”

For instance, one of the decorated trash cans near the public library has a literary theme. Another near the park displays the change in seasons, from scenes of butterflies and plants for the spring and summer, falling leaves for autumn and ice skating in the winter.

"The whole idea was to make it more visible for people to be like, ‘We have a beautiful place and we want to keep it clean, and we want to use trash cans so there’s no trash in the streets,’” Bianchini said.

"Of course, we’re aware it sounds silly that this is a beautiful piece of art on a trash can, but that’s in fact what it is,” Spencer added.

Back in Hastings, if you stop by in the next couple of days, you’ll likely see Bianchini perched high up in scaffolding, doing what she loves.

“Going out and seeing, you know, your city is becoming more beautiful, more art everywhere, it helps to everyone with the mood, with anything,” she said.

Bringing a little beauty to even the most unusual places, one brush stroke, one mosaic piece at a time.

"Even though it’s part of a big picture, you’re concentrating on a small piece,” Bianchini exclaimed. “It’s been amazing. People love it.”