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Nashville murals, street art, graffiti, signs, sculptures and more

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October 2018

Tiger, tiger, burning bright

TigerMuffler

Once upon a time, there was a muffler shop at 935 4th Avenue South called Tiger Muffler Center. It is no more. It would appear there is now an auto repair store at that address called Los Partners, though they don’t have much of an online presence. Why they or whoever owns the building decided to erase “muffler center” but leave the rest of the sign is unknown to me – maybe they just like tigers. It does change the meaning of the sign. Instead of telling us “This is the name of the muffler store,” it now says to us “Yes, that’s a tiger. The individual holding a muffler is indeed a tiger.” Ghost signs from lost businesses are of course nothing new, such as the Dutch Maid sign. “Los Partners” is an odd name, given that in Spanish the word for “partner” (as in “business partner”) is “socio.” Signs of an emerging hybrid culture, I suppose. The tiger image, however, must be considered endangered, like its natural counterpart, given that the store it supported is long gone. Check it out while you can.

Located at 935 4th Avenue South. This is a tricky place to park, particularly on a weekday when the businesses on this stretch are all open. The nearest street parking appears to be on 3rd Avenue South.

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Bud’s Liquors and Wines

BudsLiquors

I was going to call this post “a bottle of red, a bottle of white,”  but I already did that before. This Micheal Cooper mural, he of Murals and More, doesn’t show up in a lot of tourists’ selfies. Not many of them go to Bud’s Liquors and Wines, the liquor store on the back side of the Green Hills Kroger. But placed right at a key intersection where a major commercial district intersects with a wealthy residential area, it gets seen by a lot of people. The date on the mural is “6.09 (redux).” That implies it was remade in 2009. That makes sense. I’m not sure when I first saw it, but “before 2009” feels right. It’s certainly one of the survivors, an early mural that predates the current boom.

Located at 2139 Abbott Martin Rd. The mural faces Hillsboro Circle. Bud’s has parking, and in a pinch, you could park at the Kroger next door. Grab a bottle of your favorite and enjoy the art!

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Off the Wall (Part 10) – Jessi Zazu

JessiZazu

One of the last murals to be finished in the Off the Wall project on Charlotte Avenue is this portrait of Jessi Zazu. Zazu was best known as the frontwoman of Those Darlins. It was her death due to cancer in 2017 that led to this mural. Zazu fought a very public battle against her illness. That and her broader legacy as an artist, activist, and a supporter of other artists led friends and family to found Jessi Zazu, Inc. to advance that legacy and the causes important to Zazu. The design of the portrait is by Billy Lilly and features prominently on Jessi Zazu Inc.’s website. They also sell it on a t-shirt. (I have one!) The design was turned into this mural by Emmett Wariner (Zazu’s brother) and Duncan Shea, a member of Music Band who also toured with Those Darlings. The #aintafraid tag references a song of that name that Zazu wrote long before her illness, the title of which became her mantra during her fight against cancer. The mural was sponsored by Novatech.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14

Located at 3020 Charlotte Avenue. Your best bet for parking is perhaps across the street at Cross Fit Nashville or street parking on 31st Avenue north of Charlotte.

10

Pastaria

PastariaMain

Pastaria in One City is a branch of a St. Louis restaurant of the same name. Which is why the art outside the building was designed by Atomic Dust, a St. Louis branding agency. The script and figures of children are clearly much the same as from the original 2012 project in St. Lous. When the Nashville branch opened, Atomic Dust relied on 12 Point Sign Works and Brand Imaging Group for much of the local production work. There’s photo in this Atomic Dust blog post about the Nashville Pastaria projet that shows three men installing the mural above, one of whom has a “Brand Imaging Group” t-shirt, so they presumably did the installation. Since doing this work in 2017, Brand Imaging Group has become independent and is now know as Big Visual Group. It’s not clear if the “8” made up of words from a quote by Jane Jacobs is part of the Pastaria branding or not. The quote, which discusses urban design, would seem to fit the mission of One City, but as it also discusses children’s play, either is possible.

Pastaria8

Located at 8 City Boulevard, in the One City center, which is on the east side of the 28th/31st Street Connector, just south of Charlotte Avenue. There is free street parking and free garage parking. Grab some grub and enjoy the art!

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An old key

KeyNorth2

The scope of this blog includes not only murals and sculpture, but also “interesting signs.” And the sign for the old Key Motel definitely counts as interesting. There are at least a couple other of these old survivors on Dickerson, left over from the days before the interstates were built when Dickerson Pike, know also at US Highway 41, was the main route from the north into the city. Currently, the Key Motel is undergoing renovation, hence the fence. While it will reopen as a hotel, the developer is noncommittal as to whether he will keep the name, much less renovate the sign, so the future of this survivor is uncertain. Get your selfies while you still can. The southern side of the sign is actually in better condition, but it’s also partially obscured by vegetation. See below.

UPDATE: I Saw the Sign has been commisioned to restore and update the sign with a new name, The Dive Hotel. I’ll post some photos when I get a chance.

KeySouth

Located at 1414 Dickeson Pike. On the weekends you can park at the school next door. Otherwise, your best bet is the laundry a little farther north.

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A Fly Over Tennessee

FlyOverMain

I have driven by this mural hundreds of times, as I live nearby, and finally, I’m putting it on the blog. It’s easy to take the art you see every day for granted. “A Fly Over Tennesee” is an Andee Rudloff production. As she has done with other projects, she designed and drew the mural, and then community volunteers helped complete it. The mural was sponsored by Aerial Innovations Southeast, an aerial photography company that’s right next door. The theme seems to be all the great things you can see from the air in Tennessee. There’s a video of the production of this mural produced by Allie Sultan of Green Scoot Films, with still photography by Stacey Irvin and music by Fred Wilhelm.

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Located at 1626 Russell St. The mural faces the alley between and Fatherland Street, right across from Aerial Innovations, which is at 202 South 17th Street. The fence backs up on the yard of a private house, so be respectful.

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Jammers Market

JammersMain

Normally, I’m a purist about cars parked in front of murals. But I have never seen this mural without a car parked in that spot, usually pulled more far forward and blocking a good chunk of the left half of the mural. It’s apparently the official employee parking space. And as such, cars are really part of the art, ultimately. Jammers Market has no internet presence, not even so much as Yelp review. But it does have a colorful if to me largely indecipherable graffiti mural. A smaller tag on the right seems to read “”DBNER,” which might be what the brown and yellow letters say. Other tags include “IPCTW” and what might be “Kaos Ink” and “Fdc.” Kaos Ink leads to some tattoo parlors in other countries, but I doubt that has anything to do with this.

JammerLeftJammersRight

Located at 1519 Jones Avenue, at the corner with Chickasaw Avenue. There is parking at the market, and there is street parking across the street on Chickasaw.

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