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June 2019

Nations Wall – Part 9

Mobe Oner mural street art Nashville

This is the ninth in the series on The Nations Wall, a massive set of murals on the west-facing wall of Music City Tents and Events, organized by the Nashville Walls Project. It’s the ninth piece going from left to right (roughly north to south). This one is by Mobe Oner, aka Eric Bass, a prolific Nashville muralist. I first saw this image not as a giant mural, but as an oil painting at the Rymer Gallery, when they did a show of Nashville muralists. That painting, called “Fireflies,” can be yours for $3000 (scroll down a bit).

Images of the entire wall with all the murals together can be found in Part 1.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 10

Located at 5901 California Ave, Nashville, TN 37209. The murals actually face the 1300 and 1400 block of 60th Avenue North, across from the intersection with Pennsylvania Avenue. Street parking is possible nearby.

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Warner Elementary, Part 1

Warner cul-de-sac mural street art Nashville

What better place than an art school for a mural! In fact, Warner Arts Magnet Elementary has two new murals, courtesy of Andee Rudloff. The long thin one above is found on retaining wall around the cul-de-sac in front of the school. As is her usual technique, Rudloff worked with the clients, that is the students, to develop ideas, then painted the outlines. Later, students pitched in to help color the mural. Rudloff has worked with a number of other schools, and her colorful, playful style has an obvious appeal to kids (of all ages!). Themes found in this mural include playgrounds, cityscapes, theater, school buses, and friends. There is also a giant pencil with the school’s name on top of the wall (see the second slide show below). It certainly brightens up the wait to pick up or drop off a child!

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Located at 628 Russell Street, between the school and East Park. Street parking and parking at the park are available. It might be best to visit on the weekends or after school hours.

 

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Dancing in the alley

In the alley that lies between Second and Third Avenue downtown, on 200 block, there is art. Most of it is courtesy of Herb Williams, who produced a series of dancers on doorways in the alley, as well as an abstract piece in one of the windows. Collectively they are called “Taking Flight,” and are based on images of dancers from the Nashville Ballet. They are filled with butterflies, not unlike his “Deer Dissolve” mural less than a block away, that’s part of the gallery featured in Guitars and Automobiles. This series came about as a result of a project by the Downtown Partnership, which led neighbors through a visualization session with images and samples of other city alleys and streets to see what might be possible in this alley. This led to repaving the alley and removing trashcans, as well as installing the murals and the wrought-iron fence, which was sponsored and designed by Anderson Design Studio and built and installed by Ferrin Ironworks. Ferrin also did the metal rose attached to the fence. The pictures above, read left-to-right and top-to-bottom, start at the northwest part of the alley and go down the back of Third Avenue, then turnaround and head back north on the back of Second Avenue. (The same order as the series in the slide show below.) In order, they are 216 Third Avenue North (turquoise on black and the abstract piece), 214/The Lofts at Noel Court (yellow on red), 212/Saturn&Mazer Title Services (shades of green with a raised knee) and 208/The Studio 208 (leaping man with yellow sticker). Going up the back of Second Avenue North, we see 215/The Hammonds Group (metal rose and leaping turquoise woman), 217/Anderson Design Studio (red and yellow on brown), and 219/The Market Street Building (shades of green on light grey).

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Located between Third and Second Avenue along the 200 block. Access is about halfway down either block, or from Church Street. This is downtown – plenty of parking, almost none of it free.

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Arena Imprints

Arena mural street art Nashville

Located in Wedgewood-Houston, Arena Imprints provides – well can you guess from the mural? Like the saying goes, “exactly what it says on the tin.” Or in this case the mural. Arena is the place to go to order up screen printed apparel (and they do some other kinds of printing as well). A company that that does graphics production really ought to have a well-designed sign, particularly in Wedgewood-Houston, known for its art scene. This one was produced by Terrance Haynes of TerNan Art Production, a collaboration between Haynes and Nanella Henderson. And here we see another Nashville skyline featuring the Batman Building, a common motif in Nashville murals. We do love our Batman Building!

Located at 467 Chestnut Street. The mural is found on the north-east side of the building, facing a large parking lot. Parking available there and on the street-facing side of the building.

 

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Nations Wall – Part 8

Hands mural street art Nashville

This is the eighth in the series on The Nations Wall, a massive set of murals on the west-facing wall of Music City Tents and Events, organized by the Nashville Walls Project. It’s the eighth piece going from left to right (roughly north to south). This particular piece is by Folek Kelof  (or just “Folek”), a fairly prolific local muralist with a diverse range. He says on Instagram about this particular mural:

These are my hands….. they’re constantly injured and dirty. They don’t look normal for a reason.

That’s also his signature in white repeated over and over across the mural. No wonder his hands are beaten up!

Images of the entire wall with all the murals together can be found in Part 1.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 9 Part 10

Located at 5901 California Ave, Nashville, TN 37209. The murals actually face the 1300 and 1400 block of 60th Avenue North, across from the intersection with Pennsylvania Avenue. Street parking is possible nearby.

 

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East Nashville: You Are Here!

Welcome mural street art Nashville

For a long time, before the mural boom in Nashville, one of the only murals in town I was aware of was this one, the “East Nashville: You Are Here!” mural at Five Points, on the north-facing wall of what used to be Eastside Cycles and will soon be MOAB Bikes. The decision to paint over it in mid-2016 with a new mural was controversial at the time and even prompted some vandalism (you can see the new mural at that link). I’m writing about it today because of a post to the East Nashville Facebook page (that’s a closed group) by the original artist (whose name I had never known before), Nathaniel Allen. Of course, I’ve been using this mural as the banner for my blog since the inception, but since I didn’t know the artist, I never got around to posting about it. This blog is not just a guide to what’s out there now (and it’s incomplete as such a guide), but also an attempt by me to record the history of outdoor art in Nashville and create an archive for lost art. At least 10% of what’s on this blog no longer exists, and I do at times blog about pieces that are gone, though at three years later this is the farthest back I’ve gone to recover lost art. If you can’t open that Facebook post above, I can assure the decision to paint over this mural remains quite controversial, but it’s hardly the only mural in Nashville to be lost, and there will certainly be more. Allen posted on his own Facebook Page a couple of posts detailing the process of producing the “East Nashville: You Are Here!” mural you might want to check out.

Formally located at 103 South 11th Street, at Five Points. It’s worth walking around this area, as there is a lot of art in the Five Points area now. There is paid parking at Five Points, but with a bit of luck, you can find free street parking within a block or so.

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Hempsterville

Hempsterville mural street art Nashville

It may be time to create a category for hemp and CBD shops because there seems to be a trend for them to use art to make themselves stand out. This is Hempsterville, which is, you guessed it, is on Porter Road just off Riverside Drive. It’s by Eric Bass, who usually signs his work Mobe Oner. He’s already got one of these CBD/hemp shops under his belt, LabCanna on Gallatin, featured in CBD, Street art style. Besides the shout out to Riverside and Porter, the mural includes the iconic Batman Building and the railroad trestle that soars over nearby Shelby Park. If this industry continues to grow, I suspect we will see more hemp-related art in the coming months and years.

(The odd crop is a result of making this fit Facebook’s sharing rules, which crop everything to be the shape of a billboard, or a door if the photo is tall and thin. Facebook needs to revise that policy.)

Located at 1601B Riverside Drive. The mural and the shop actually face Porter Road. There is some parking at the building and some street parking across the road.

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