Iowa Silo Makes Beautiful Canvas for Mural Artist [PHOTOS]

Beautiful isn't it?! You're looking at a massive 110-foot silo in Fort Dodge, Iowa. An artist named Guido van Helten is turning the silo into a beautiful art masterpiece. Iowa's especially cold November proved a real challenge for van Helten. He was forced to have heaters in his lift basket, so he could keep the hand-mixed paint he uses, and himself, warm. It's taken the Australian artist weeks to paint the silo, but the results are breathtaking.

The city of Fort Dodge commissioned nearly $132,000, from grants and donations, through the Northwest River District Revitalization Plan. It is thought to be Iowa's largest mural, and certainly one of the most unique. By my count, it features at least six people. WKRG says all of the likenesses on the silo are from real local citizens that van Helten took photographs of a year ago.

Van Helten loves grain elevators and has done mural projects in South Dakota, along with Tennessee, Florida, and Arkansas. In USA Today, van Helten says,

A lot of places in the Midwest have these, and they are already sort of monuments to that place's history or its industry. The architecture is purely functional in its design. So I think it's interesting to use them for a decorative purpose.

I certainly hope more are to follow in Iowa. In the meantime, check out the beautiful photos and aerial video below or stop and see it for yourself. It's located along 3rd St. N.W. in Fort Dodge.