Beyoncé's mum offers rare insights into famous family
Tina Knowles. Hachette. $34.99.
Tina Knowles is Beyoncé's mum. In this memoir, the fashion designer recounts the family history and upbringing of the pop music megastar (and her singer sister Solange). Knowles offers rare insights into her famously private daughter's early life of school shyness and the discovery of her talent. She also writes about raising "bonus" daughter Kelly Rowland, as she and the other members of chart-topping '90s girl group Destiny's Child juggled fame and stardom at a young age. Billed as a celebration of "the world-changing power of black motherhood", the book has attracted praise from the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama.
Raina MacIntyre. NewSouth Books. $34.99.
"If there was a vaccine against heart attacks, would you take it?" asks world-leading epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre, before explaining that the answer is right in front of us. Vaccines that will help reduce the chances of cardiac issues already exist. Flu, shingles and (surprise!) COVID shots are among them. MacIntyre explains how vaccines changed the world, and how ignorance and complacency threaten to change it back. Among the important messages: COVID isn't over. If we don't act it will be with us for decades. (If you can't be bothered getting a flu jab, maybe start with the chapter on influenza.)
Damon Young. Scribe. $32.99.
Just how much is there to consider, analyse and write about the simple gesture involved in asking for a restaurant bill? Quite a lot, as it turns out, and it is fascinating. You know the signal: you pretend to hold a pen and twirl your wrist in the waiter's direction. What then, can be said about the "shush" gesture, or a shrug, or the "unsanitary and unnecessary ritual of the handshake" (ick warning)? Philosopher Damon Young goes deep into 13 gestures, drawing from Degas to Dr Who. Yes, it is about gestures, but this book is really about much more.
Phil Craig. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99.
The final book in Phil Craig's Finest Hour trilogy examines how the closing chapters of World War II played out for Britain and its empire. In Europe, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was being liberated. In India, nationalists faced a choice between the Raj and the Axis. In Borneo, Australian soldiers are dropped behind enemy lines, but sadly not to rescue Australian prisoners from the infamous Sandakan POW camp. Perhaps most astonishingly, in Vietnam, where Ho Chi Minh was trying to curry favour with the US, the British used freed Japanese prisoners to attack his army and return Saigon to French control.
Gareth Ward & Louise Ward. Penguin. $34.99.
In 2013, six years after relocating to Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, former British police officers Gareth and Louise Ward bought a local bookshop that was closing down. They went against everyone's advice, including the shop's owner, but built the business back and opened a second store. The heroes of their Bookshop Detectives cosy crime mysteries are the husband-and-wife owners of the Sherlock Tomes bookshop in a tiny NZ town. The Wards follow their 2024 debut, Dead Girl Gone, with Tea and Cake and Death, in which book-selling sleuths Garth and Eloise Sherlock investigate deadly poisonings ahead of their annual Battle of the Book Clubs fundraiser.
Cassie Hamer. HarperCollins. $14.99.
For her fourth suburban noir since her 2020 debut After The Party, Sydney author Cassie Hamer adds misery, mystery and mayhem to the usual festering family angst of Christmas as Maz Antonio hosts her first big family gathering after two years in jail. To atone for her terrible mistakes and show their guests she can maintain her sobriety, Maz wants the lunch to be perfect for her husband and children. But who is the man impulsively invited along by her mum? Is he really a stranger or is he connected to the past Maz is so desperate to put behind her?
Jacqueline Maley. 4th Estate. $34.99.
The second novel by Nine newspapers columnist Jacqueline Maley (after 2021's The Truth About Her) follows half-sisters and their unreliable mother as they reconcile with the family ties that bind them and the hidden trauma that threatens to tear them apart. Lara is a model living carefree in France. Matilda is a chef in a fancy Sydney restaurant who prefers her life solitary and self-contained. Lara is 10 years younger than Matilda, but they are close - until a visit home by Lara and the return of her long-absent, erratic father trying to make amends for his past misdeeds, blows up Matilda's buttoned-down life.
Holly Wainwright. Pan MacMillan. $34.99.
The fifth novel by Mamamia podcaster Holly Wainwright is inspired by her family's long-standing annual camping holidays with a bunch of other families, and the diverse perspectives and strong bonds of friendship shared by the women. For her fiction, the NSW South Coast-based author follows five women as they gather with their families for their traditional summer camping holiday at Green River. They all met at a mother's group 14 years earlier. Liss and Lachy Short are still the gang's golden couple. But is Liss prepared to listen to her second family of truth-tellers about the kind of toxic man her husband really is?
Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest book reviews and articles with ease.
New books sampled this week include a memoir by Beyoncé's mum and He Would Never, the new novel by Holly Wainwright.
Tina Knowles. Hachette. $34.99.
Tina Knowles is Beyoncé's mum. In this memoir, the fashion designer recounts the family history and upbringing of the pop music megastar (and her singer sister Solange). Knowles offers rare insights into her famously private daughter's early life of school shyness and the discovery of her talent. She also writes about raising "bonus" daughter Kelly Rowland, as she and the other members of chart-topping '90s girl group Destiny's Child juggled fame and stardom at a young age. Billed as a celebration of "the world-changing power of black motherhood", the book has attracted praise from the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama.
Raina MacIntyre. NewSouth Books. $34.99.
"If there was a vaccine against heart attacks, would you take it?" asks world-leading epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre, before explaining that the answer is right in front of us. Vaccines that will help reduce the chances of cardiac issues already exist. Flu, shingles and (surprise!) COVID shots are among them. MacIntyre explains how vaccines changed the world, and how ignorance and complacency threaten to change it back. Among the important messages: COVID isn't over. If we don't act it will be with us for decades. (If you can't be bothered getting a flu jab, maybe start with the chapter on influenza.)
Damon Young. Scribe. $32.99.
Just how much is there to consider, analyse and write about the simple gesture involved in asking for a restaurant bill? Quite a lot, as it turns out, and it is fascinating. You know the signal: you pretend to hold a pen and twirl your wrist in the waiter's direction. What then, can be said about the "shush" gesture, or a shrug, or the "unsanitary and unnecessary ritual of the handshake" (ick warning)? Philosopher Damon Young goes deep into 13 gestures, drawing from Degas to Dr Who. Yes, it is about gestures, but this book is really about much more.
Phil Craig. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99.
The final book in Phil Craig's Finest Hour trilogy examines how the closing chapters of World War II played out for Britain and its empire. In Europe, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was being liberated. In India, nationalists faced a choice between the Raj and the Axis. In Borneo, Australian soldiers are dropped behind enemy lines, but sadly not to rescue Australian prisoners from the infamous Sandakan POW camp. Perhaps most astonishingly, in Vietnam, where Ho Chi Minh was trying to curry favour with the US, the British used freed Japanese prisoners to attack his army and return Saigon to French control.
Gareth Ward & Louise Ward. Penguin. $34.99.
In 2013, six years after relocating to Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, former British police officers Gareth and Louise Ward bought a local bookshop that was closing down. They went against everyone's advice, including the shop's owner, but built the business back and opened a second store. The heroes of their Bookshop Detectives cosy crime mysteries are the husband-and-wife owners of the Sherlock Tomes bookshop in a tiny NZ town. The Wards follow their 2024 debut, Dead Girl Gone, with Tea and Cake and Death, in which book-selling sleuths Garth and Eloise Sherlock investigate deadly poisonings ahead of their annual Battle of the Book Clubs fundraiser.
Cassie Hamer. HarperCollins. $14.99.
For her fourth suburban noir since her 2020 debut After The Party, Sydney author Cassie Hamer adds misery, mystery and mayhem to the usual festering family angst of Christmas as Maz Antonio hosts her first big family gathering after two years in jail. To atone for her terrible mistakes and show their guests she can maintain her sobriety, Maz wants the lunch to be perfect for her husband and children. But who is the man impulsively invited along by her mum? Is he really a stranger or is he connected to the past Maz is so desperate to put behind her?
Jacqueline Maley. 4th Estate. $34.99.
The second novel by Nine newspapers columnist Jacqueline Maley (after 2021's The Truth About Her) follows half-sisters and their unreliable mother as they reconcile with the family ties that bind them and the hidden trauma that threatens to tear them apart. Lara is a model living carefree in France. Matilda is a chef in a fancy Sydney restaurant who prefers her life solitary and self-contained. Lara is 10 years younger than Matilda, but they are close - until a visit home by Lara and the return of her long-absent, erratic father trying to make amends for his past misdeeds, blows up Matilda's buttoned-down life.
Holly Wainwright. Pan MacMillan. $34.99.
The fifth novel by Mamamia podcaster Holly Wainwright is inspired by her family's long-standing annual camping holidays with a bunch of other families, and the diverse perspectives and strong bonds of friendship shared by the women. For her fiction, the NSW South Coast-based author follows five women as they gather with their families for their traditional summer camping holiday at Green River. They all met at a mother's group 14 years earlier. Liss and Lachy Short are still the gang's golden couple. But is Liss prepared to listen to her second family of truth-tellers about the kind of toxic man her husband really is?
Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest book reviews and articles with ease.
New books sampled this week include a memoir by Beyoncé's mum and He Would Never, the new novel by Holly Wainwright.
Tina Knowles. Hachette. $34.99.
Tina Knowles is Beyoncé's mum. In this memoir, the fashion designer recounts the family history and upbringing of the pop music megastar (and her singer sister Solange). Knowles offers rare insights into her famously private daughter's early life of school shyness and the discovery of her talent. She also writes about raising "bonus" daughter Kelly Rowland, as she and the other members of chart-topping '90s girl group Destiny's Child juggled fame and stardom at a young age. Billed as a celebration of "the world-changing power of black motherhood", the book has attracted praise from the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama.
Raina MacIntyre. NewSouth Books. $34.99.
"If there was a vaccine against heart attacks, would you take it?" asks world-leading epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre, before explaining that the answer is right in front of us. Vaccines that will help reduce the chances of cardiac issues already exist. Flu, shingles and (surprise!) COVID shots are among them. MacIntyre explains how vaccines changed the world, and how ignorance and complacency threaten to change it back. Among the important messages: COVID isn't over. If we don't act it will be with us for decades. (If you can't be bothered getting a flu jab, maybe start with the chapter on influenza.)
Damon Young. Scribe. $32.99.
Just how much is there to consider, analyse and write about the simple gesture involved in asking for a restaurant bill? Quite a lot, as it turns out, and it is fascinating. You know the signal: you pretend to hold a pen and twirl your wrist in the waiter's direction. What then, can be said about the "shush" gesture, or a shrug, or the "unsanitary and unnecessary ritual of the handshake" (ick warning)? Philosopher Damon Young goes deep into 13 gestures, drawing from Degas to Dr Who. Yes, it is about gestures, but this book is really about much more.
Phil Craig. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99.
The final book in Phil Craig's Finest Hour trilogy examines how the closing chapters of World War II played out for Britain and its empire. In Europe, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was being liberated. In India, nationalists faced a choice between the Raj and the Axis. In Borneo, Australian soldiers are dropped behind enemy lines, but sadly not to rescue Australian prisoners from the infamous Sandakan POW camp. Perhaps most astonishingly, in Vietnam, where Ho Chi Minh was trying to curry favour with the US, the British used freed Japanese prisoners to attack his army and return Saigon to French control.
Gareth Ward & Louise Ward. Penguin. $34.99.
In 2013, six years after relocating to Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, former British police officers Gareth and Louise Ward bought a local bookshop that was closing down. They went against everyone's advice, including the shop's owner, but built the business back and opened a second store. The heroes of their Bookshop Detectives cosy crime mysteries are the husband-and-wife owners of the Sherlock Tomes bookshop in a tiny NZ town. The Wards follow their 2024 debut, Dead Girl Gone, with Tea and Cake and Death, in which book-selling sleuths Garth and Eloise Sherlock investigate deadly poisonings ahead of their annual Battle of the Book Clubs fundraiser.
Cassie Hamer. HarperCollins. $14.99.
For her fourth suburban noir since her 2020 debut After The Party, Sydney author Cassie Hamer adds misery, mystery and mayhem to the usual festering family angst of Christmas as Maz Antonio hosts her first big family gathering after two years in jail. To atone for her terrible mistakes and show their guests she can maintain her sobriety, Maz wants the lunch to be perfect for her husband and children. But who is the man impulsively invited along by her mum? Is he really a stranger or is he connected to the past Maz is so desperate to put behind her?
Jacqueline Maley. 4th Estate. $34.99.
The second novel by Nine newspapers columnist Jacqueline Maley (after 2021's The Truth About Her) follows half-sisters and their unreliable mother as they reconcile with the family ties that bind them and the hidden trauma that threatens to tear them apart. Lara is a model living carefree in France. Matilda is a chef in a fancy Sydney restaurant who prefers her life solitary and self-contained. Lara is 10 years younger than Matilda, but they are close - until a visit home by Lara and the return of her long-absent, erratic father trying to make amends for his past misdeeds, blows up Matilda's buttoned-down life.
Holly Wainwright. Pan MacMillan. $34.99.
The fifth novel by Mamamia podcaster Holly Wainwright is inspired by her family's long-standing annual camping holidays with a bunch of other families, and the diverse perspectives and strong bonds of friendship shared by the women. For her fiction, the NSW South Coast-based author follows five women as they gather with their families for their traditional summer camping holiday at Green River. They all met at a mother's group 14 years earlier. Liss and Lachy Short are still the gang's golden couple. But is Liss prepared to listen to her second family of truth-tellers about the kind of toxic man her husband really is?
Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest book reviews and articles with ease.
New books sampled this week include a memoir by Beyoncé's mum and He Would Never, the new novel by Holly Wainwright.
Tina Knowles. Hachette. $34.99.
Tina Knowles is Beyoncé's mum. In this memoir, the fashion designer recounts the family history and upbringing of the pop music megastar (and her singer sister Solange). Knowles offers rare insights into her famously private daughter's early life of school shyness and the discovery of her talent. She also writes about raising "bonus" daughter Kelly Rowland, as she and the other members of chart-topping '90s girl group Destiny's Child juggled fame and stardom at a young age. Billed as a celebration of "the world-changing power of black motherhood", the book has attracted praise from the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama.
Raina MacIntyre. NewSouth Books. $34.99.
"If there was a vaccine against heart attacks, would you take it?" asks world-leading epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre, before explaining that the answer is right in front of us. Vaccines that will help reduce the chances of cardiac issues already exist. Flu, shingles and (surprise!) COVID shots are among them. MacIntyre explains how vaccines changed the world, and how ignorance and complacency threaten to change it back. Among the important messages: COVID isn't over. If we don't act it will be with us for decades. (If you can't be bothered getting a flu jab, maybe start with the chapter on influenza.)
Damon Young. Scribe. $32.99.
Just how much is there to consider, analyse and write about the simple gesture involved in asking for a restaurant bill? Quite a lot, as it turns out, and it is fascinating. You know the signal: you pretend to hold a pen and twirl your wrist in the waiter's direction. What then, can be said about the "shush" gesture, or a shrug, or the "unsanitary and unnecessary ritual of the handshake" (ick warning)? Philosopher Damon Young goes deep into 13 gestures, drawing from Degas to Dr Who. Yes, it is about gestures, but this book is really about much more.
Phil Craig. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99.
The final book in Phil Craig's Finest Hour trilogy examines how the closing chapters of World War II played out for Britain and its empire. In Europe, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was being liberated. In India, nationalists faced a choice between the Raj and the Axis. In Borneo, Australian soldiers are dropped behind enemy lines, but sadly not to rescue Australian prisoners from the infamous Sandakan POW camp. Perhaps most astonishingly, in Vietnam, where Ho Chi Minh was trying to curry favour with the US, the British used freed Japanese prisoners to attack his army and return Saigon to French control.
Gareth Ward & Louise Ward. Penguin. $34.99.
In 2013, six years after relocating to Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, former British police officers Gareth and Louise Ward bought a local bookshop that was closing down. They went against everyone's advice, including the shop's owner, but built the business back and opened a second store. The heroes of their Bookshop Detectives cosy crime mysteries are the husband-and-wife owners of the Sherlock Tomes bookshop in a tiny NZ town. The Wards follow their 2024 debut, Dead Girl Gone, with Tea and Cake and Death, in which book-selling sleuths Garth and Eloise Sherlock investigate deadly poisonings ahead of their annual Battle of the Book Clubs fundraiser.
Cassie Hamer. HarperCollins. $14.99.
For her fourth suburban noir since her 2020 debut After The Party, Sydney author Cassie Hamer adds misery, mystery and mayhem to the usual festering family angst of Christmas as Maz Antonio hosts her first big family gathering after two years in jail. To atone for her terrible mistakes and show their guests she can maintain her sobriety, Maz wants the lunch to be perfect for her husband and children. But who is the man impulsively invited along by her mum? Is he really a stranger or is he connected to the past Maz is so desperate to put behind her?
Jacqueline Maley. 4th Estate. $34.99.
The second novel by Nine newspapers columnist Jacqueline Maley (after 2021's The Truth About Her) follows half-sisters and their unreliable mother as they reconcile with the family ties that bind them and the hidden trauma that threatens to tear them apart. Lara is a model living carefree in France. Matilda is a chef in a fancy Sydney restaurant who prefers her life solitary and self-contained. Lara is 10 years younger than Matilda, but they are close - until a visit home by Lara and the return of her long-absent, erratic father trying to make amends for his past misdeeds, blows up Matilda's buttoned-down life.
Holly Wainwright. Pan MacMillan. $34.99.
The fifth novel by Mamamia podcaster Holly Wainwright is inspired by her family's long-standing annual camping holidays with a bunch of other families, and the diverse perspectives and strong bonds of friendship shared by the women. For her fiction, the NSW South Coast-based author follows five women as they gather with their families for their traditional summer camping holiday at Green River. They all met at a mother's group 14 years earlier. Liss and Lachy Short are still the gang's golden couple. But is Liss prepared to listen to her second family of truth-tellers about the kind of toxic man her husband really is?
Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest book reviews and articles with ease.
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Aussie brings grain silo art to small North Dakota town
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Back and forth van Helten brushes, focused on his work and not bothered by the sheer enormity of his task as he stands in a boom lift, 23 metres off the ground, and focused on a few square metres of a structure that stretches over most of a city block. "When you use these old structures to kinda share stories and use them as a vehicle to carry an image of identity, it becomes part of the landscape," he said. "I've found that people have really adopted them and become really super proud of them." The work on the former Union Silos is van Helten's latest effort to paint murals on a gigantic scale, with earlier projects on structures ranging from a dam in Australia to part of a former cooling tower at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine. Although he has created murals throughout the world, grain silos in the US Midwest have been among his most frequent sites. "I do enjoy the opportunity to uncover stories that are often kinda considered out of the way or flyover communities," he said. Van Helten, 38, has been creating murals for years, working increasingly in the US over the past seven years. The Brisbane artist's interest in regional communities began in earnest after a mural he created years ago on a silo in an Australian town of 100 people. The idea, he said, drew interest, and he began a series of commissions around Australia and the US. Van Helten uses a mineral silicate paint formulated to absorb and bond with concrete, and it lasts a long time. He mixes tones specific to the colour of the wall and subtly layers the work so it blends in. "I love the colouring of these buildings, so I don't want to fight with them, I don't want to change it, I don't want it to be bright. I want it to become part of the landscape," he said. It's not a quick process, as van Helten initially meets with residents to learn about a community and then spends months slowly transforming what is usually the largest structure in a small town. He began painting in Minot in May with plans for a 360-degree mural that combines photography with painting to depict the people and culture of an area. The Minot elevator and silos were built in the 1950s and were an economic centre for years before they ceased operations around the early 1990s. Van Helten isn't giving too much away about what his Minot mural will depict, but said he has been inspired by concepts of land and ownership while in North Dakota, from ranching and the oil field to Native American perspectives. Minot is a city of nearly 50,000 people and sits near the Bakken oil field and Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. "It is really when you boil down to it in many ways about land and how different cultures interpret that and connect with it, and I feel it's really interesting in North Dakota because it is really such a big, open land," the artist said. Much of the mural is still taking shape, but images of a barn and female figures are visible. Property owner Derek Hackett said the mural is "a great way to take what is kind of a blighted property and be able to give it a facelift and kind of resurrect its presence in our skyline." The mural is entirely donation-funded, costing about $US350,000, about 85 per cent of which is already raised, said Chelsea Gleich, a spokesperson for the project. High atop a massive grain elevator in the middle of Minot, North Dakota, Australian artist Guido van Helten swipes a concrete wall with a brush that looks more appropriate for painting a fence than creating a monumental mural. Back and forth van Helten brushes, focused on his work and not bothered by the sheer enormity of his task as he stands in a boom lift, 23 metres off the ground, and focused on a few square metres of a structure that stretches over most of a city block. "When you use these old structures to kinda share stories and use them as a vehicle to carry an image of identity, it becomes part of the landscape," he said. "I've found that people have really adopted them and become really super proud of them." The work on the former Union Silos is van Helten's latest effort to paint murals on a gigantic scale, with earlier projects on structures ranging from a dam in Australia to part of a former cooling tower at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine. Although he has created murals throughout the world, grain silos in the US Midwest have been among his most frequent sites. "I do enjoy the opportunity to uncover stories that are often kinda considered out of the way or flyover communities," he said. Van Helten, 38, has been creating murals for years, working increasingly in the US over the past seven years. The Brisbane artist's interest in regional communities began in earnest after a mural he created years ago on a silo in an Australian town of 100 people. The idea, he said, drew interest, and he began a series of commissions around Australia and the US. Van Helten uses a mineral silicate paint formulated to absorb and bond with concrete, and it lasts a long time. He mixes tones specific to the colour of the wall and subtly layers the work so it blends in. "I love the colouring of these buildings, so I don't want to fight with them, I don't want to change it, I don't want it to be bright. I want it to become part of the landscape," he said. It's not a quick process, as van Helten initially meets with residents to learn about a community and then spends months slowly transforming what is usually the largest structure in a small town. He began painting in Minot in May with plans for a 360-degree mural that combines photography with painting to depict the people and culture of an area. The Minot elevator and silos were built in the 1950s and were an economic centre for years before they ceased operations around the early 1990s. Van Helten isn't giving too much away about what his Minot mural will depict, but said he has been inspired by concepts of land and ownership while in North Dakota, from ranching and the oil field to Native American perspectives. Minot is a city of nearly 50,000 people and sits near the Bakken oil field and Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. "It is really when you boil down to it in many ways about land and how different cultures interpret that and connect with it, and I feel it's really interesting in North Dakota because it is really such a big, open land," the artist said. Much of the mural is still taking shape, but images of a barn and female figures are visible. Property owner Derek Hackett said the mural is "a great way to take what is kind of a blighted property and be able to give it a facelift and kind of resurrect its presence in our skyline." 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- Perth Now
Aussie brings grain silo art to small North Dakota town
High atop a massive grain elevator in the middle of Minot, North Dakota, Australian artist Guido van Helten swipes a concrete wall with a brush that looks more appropriate for painting a fence than creating a monumental mural. Back and forth van Helten brushes, focused on his work and not bothered by the sheer enormity of his task as he stands in a boom lift, 23 metres off the ground, and focused on a few square metres of a structure that stretches over most of a city block. "When you use these old structures to kinda share stories and use them as a vehicle to carry an image of identity, it becomes part of the landscape," he said. "I've found that people have really adopted them and become really super proud of them." The work on the former Union Silos is van Helten's latest effort to paint murals on a gigantic scale, with earlier projects on structures ranging from a dam in Australia to part of a former cooling tower at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine. Although he has created murals throughout the world, grain silos in the US Midwest have been among his most frequent sites. "I do enjoy the opportunity to uncover stories that are often kinda considered out of the way or flyover communities," he said. Van Helten, 38, has been creating murals for years, working increasingly in the US over the past seven years. The Brisbane artist's interest in regional communities began in earnest after a mural he created years ago on a silo in an Australian town of 100 people. The idea, he said, drew interest, and he began a series of commissions around Australia and the US. Van Helten uses a mineral silicate paint formulated to absorb and bond with concrete, and it lasts a long time. He mixes tones specific to the colour of the wall and subtly layers the work so it blends in. "I love the colouring of these buildings, so I don't want to fight with them, I don't want to change it, I don't want it to be bright. I want it to become part of the landscape," he said. It's not a quick process, as van Helten initially meets with residents to learn about a community and then spends months slowly transforming what is usually the largest structure in a small town. He began painting in Minot in May with plans for a 360-degree mural that combines photography with painting to depict the people and culture of an area. The Minot elevator and silos were built in the 1950s and were an economic centre for years before they ceased operations around the early 1990s. Van Helten isn't giving too much away about what his Minot mural will depict, but said he has been inspired by concepts of land and ownership while in North Dakota, from ranching and the oil field to Native American perspectives. Minot is a city of nearly 50,000 people and sits near the Bakken oil field and Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. "It is really when you boil down to it in many ways about land and how different cultures interpret that and connect with it, and I feel it's really interesting in North Dakota because it is really such a big, open land," the artist said. Much of the mural is still taking shape, but images of a barn and female figures are visible. Property owner Derek Hackett said the mural is "a great way to take what is kind of a blighted property and be able to give it a facelift and kind of resurrect its presence in our skyline." The mural is entirely donation-funded, costing about $US350,000, about 85 per cent of which is already raised, said Chelsea Gleich, a spokesperson for the project.
