To honor the Purple One, a New Zealand artist is painting a 40-foot mural of Prince on the west wall of the Chanhassen Cinema, not far from the entertainer's Paisley Park studio.
Artist Graham Hoete, who reached out to the theater to paint the Prince tribute, started work on it Saturday. Since he began, visitors have been stopping nonstop to take a peek and snap pictures. The cinema posted an update of the mural on Facebook Monday.
The theater plans to unveil the finished work at 7 p.m. Wednesday, according to Martin Hubbard, chief operating officer of Five Star Cinemas, which owns the Chanhassen theater.
Hoete, who goes by "Mr G," has already painted a Prince mural in Australia. He made the trip to Minnesota after fans requested something similar in Prince's home state. City officials suggested that Hoete contact the Chanhassen Cinema.
"We had a building big enough and enough empty space on the building," Hubbard said. Prince went there a couple times a month to watch new movies, he added.
Following Prince's death in April, Hubbard posted an announcement on the cinema's Facebook page about the late artist.
"He has been our friend and guest for nearly 18 years," Hubbard said in the post. "My staff and I have had the opportunity to show him, along with his guests, countless movies over these many years."
Chanhassen Mayor Denny Laufenburger said city officials are discussing the possibility of a tribute to Prince, but that there was no rush to move forward with any plans.
"I don't think Prince is going to disappear anytime soon," he said.
Beatrice Dupuy
