Did I get a bit star struck, meeting the muralists who painted the iconic LOVE mural at 36th and Bryant Ave.? Yes, and I didn’t hide it well. And then when they told me they also did the This Is Our City mural at 36 Lyn? Just stop.

Meta Project's LOVE mural at the southwest corner of 36th and Bryant Ave. S.

Brookita Corazon and Kid Quam make up Meta Project, the team behind numerous Southwest Minneapolis murals, including a brand new one on 36th Street. They have been making murals together for nine years.

Meta Project’s newest mural came about because of a haircut. A few months ago, Quam was getting his hair cut at Glenn’s Barbershop, next door to Bryant Hardware. The barber and Quam started chatting about the mural on the side of the building that was peeling away. This weekend, I found Corazon and Quam painting loons and cattails atop a freshly cleared wall outside the barbershop.

Quam admittedly wanted to wait a bit longer to paint over the mural because it was painted by kids around the neighborhood. Glimpses of the previous mural can be seen in this video of Quam priming the wall.

Brookita Corazon paints part of a loon's red eye on September 25.

The mural is funded by community donations that are being collected through a GoFundMe campaign.

Corazon and Quam started working on the mural Thursday night and have been painting the mural all weekend. Sunday proved to be a challenging day to paint due to the high winds. They hope to put the finishing touches on the mural in the next few days.

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The early stages of the mural. Photo courtesy of Meta Project

Meta Project’s work is also on walls near the 33rd and Grand intersection (clue: look for a trolley), in the alley behind moto-i, and high up on the former Herkimer building. The latter two pieces were painted as part of the LynLake Art Series.

Meta Project's This Is Our City mural at 36 Lyn.