nashville public art

The Words of Armstrong Real Estate

Armstrong Realty mural street art Nashville

This little mural on the side of Armstrong Real Estate off Dickerson Pike has flummoxed me for a while. I was certain it was a Nathan Brown piece, as it is so similar to a style Brown has used before, such as in the mural featured in Bootstrap and an interior mural at Far East Nashville ( a restaurant I highly recommend). But it isn’t signed. And Brown’s style has been copied before, not this style, but his “geometric gradient style” that you can see in the mural featured in Topgolf. And the style “homage” is found in a mural that’s right next door! So I needed to be sure. Did I ever go over to Armstrong and ask. No, I kept putting it off. But I ran into Aaron Armstong on the trick-or-treat circuit, and he confirmed the artist’s identity. Dickerson Pike is well behind the parallel-running Gallatin, but with its increasing development, I would expect to see more art in the future. Of course, that also means a lot of the old signage on that road is endangered. The office also features a nice hand-painted sign on the front (I’m not sure who did that). And hey, I wonder who that is reflected on the glass? Hmmm.

Located at 1301 Dickerson Avenue. The mural is on the south of the building, facing Douglas Ave. The sign is on the east, facing Dickerson. There is plenty of parking here and next door.

November 4, 2019 0

Road to the Mountaintop

Mountaintop Sculpture street art Nashville

Along Charlotte, not far from the Capitol, lies William Edmonson Park, adjacent to the John Henry Hale Apartments, an MDHA-run affordable housing complex that was completely rebuilt a few years ago. As part of that reconstruction, the park was redone as an art park honoring William Edmonson, a decision that in part came out of community discussions. Edmonson was a local sculptor who, in 1937, became the first African-American and the first Tennessean to have a solo show at the Modern Museum of Art in New York. The park contains three modern sculptures commissioned by Metro Arts (and an arrangement of limestone column fragments honoring Edmonson). This one, “Road to the Mountaintop” (2014) is by Thornton Dial. In many ways, this is quite appropriate. Like Edmonson, Dial was a self-taught African-American artist who devoted himself full-time to art in his 50s after losing employment. While Edmonson worked in readily available Nashville limestone, Dial, a former metalworker, used iron, steel and found objects to create his work. Road to the Mountaintop is made from steel, sheet metal, and automotive paint, and has a weathered look as a result. The main photos here are from October 2019, but the two at the bottom are from July 2016, and you can see some clear distinctions. Dial had this to say about his work (quoted in NashvilleArts Magazine):

“I make my art for people to learn from, but I only have made one piece to go outdoors before this one. I loved the idea that people would be driving down the street and looking at my art outdoors. More people can see it that way and maybe understand what it is that artists like me think and are trying to tell people. The piece is about Martin Luther King and Civil Rights in some ways, but it is also about the struggles that every person faces if they’re a woman or a man, a black person or a white person. We all got to struggle to get up. That’s our job, our duty.”

Here are photos from the park’s dedication, where you can also see some of the other work in the park, works which I will put on the blog in the coming weeks. Oh, and the Nashville Scene’s park reviewer (which is apparently a thing) is not a fan of the park. I think it’s nice, myself.

On a related note, there was a recent attempt by Metro to sell the park in Edghill where Edmonson’s home used to be. It’s stalled for now, and the neighbors want their own art park honoring Edmonson. If it happens, it would certainly be a fitting honor.

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Located at 1600 Charlotte Avenue. The sculpture lies at the northeast end of the park, facing 16th Avenue North, near the intersection with Charlotte. The nearest street parking is one block north on Capitol Point.

November 2, 2019 0

I believe in Basement East

I believe Nashville mural street art

Perhaps the most famous mural in Nashville, the most famous piece of art, period, is not one but multiple. It’s three, or four or even more, depending on what you decide to count. There are two completely official “I Believe in Nashville” murals, one in 12 South and one in Marathon Village (neither of which is on this blog yet). I say “completely official,” because those are the ones you find on IBelieveInNasvhille.com, the I Believe in Nashville Facebook page, and on the I Believe in Nashville Instagram page. There is also one on Shelby Street done by a local homeowner and not the original artist, Adrien Saporiti of DCXV Industries. There are takeoffs like the I Believe in Petsville mural by Leah Boorse, and an I Believe in Smashville mural by Saporiti himself. This one, on the west wall of The Basement East, is not signed by Saporiti, nor does it appear on any of his websites or social media, but it does sport the IBelieveInNashville.com website and Instagram page addresses, so I’ll call it semi-official. I didn’t see it scrolling through several pages of the #ibelieveinNashville hashtag on Instagram, though interestingly, one that does is the wings mural by Kelsey Montague, featured in Sometimes you have to be obvious and easily the biggest rival for Internet fame to the I Believe in Nashville series. I think that’s odd because the Basement East version is the best one for taking an actual selfie because it’s up high, and thus you can angle your phone and get a decent shot. The wall it’s on features a rotating series of concert murals and one other “permanent” mural of a skeleton. This mural, by the way, will be the 500th pin on the blog’s map. It’s not the 500th blog post – that honor went to 500 Pink Elephants back in July. Early in the blog, I was in the habit of using only one pin where there were multiple works of art, thus the discrepancy, but now I don’t do that and pin every piece. Note that not all of the pins on that map are for art that still exists – check the relevant blog post before making a special trip – but it does give you a good idea of where to find outdoor art in Nashville.

UPDATE: While the mural was spared, at least temporarily, this building was severely damaged by the March 3, 2020 tornado. The fate of the mural is unclear. See What we lost in the storm.

UPDATE: I have been able to confirm that this is in fact an original by Saporiti. He wrote on his IG page about repairing it after the tornado.

Located at 917 Woodland Street. The mural is on the west wall, facing downtown towards the river. Parking is complicated in this area, given the many businesses and that Basement East is a concert venue. There is street parking on the nearby side streets, 9th Street and McFerrin Avenue.

October 30, 2019 1

Flowers of Ma’Kai

MaKai Mural Nashville street art

One muralist who has been popping on this blog a lot recently is Tara Marie Aversa (who also uses the name Tarabella Aversa on Instagram.) And why not? She’s been very productive of late. Back in July, she painted this mural for Cafe Ma’Kai on Wedgewood. Ma’Kai is Hawaiian for “towards the ocean,” so the classic surfer’s wave and the collection of tropical flowers make sense, partirulay since so much of Aversa’s work features a lot of flowers. Interestingly, if you peruse Ma’Kai’s Instagram page, you’ll see they’ve been taking photos of food and customers in front of this wall long before they got a mural. Now they have a more colorful background to work with. It’s also another example of Aversa successfully working with a difficult canvas. Here it was very rough stone, and in Living Waters, it was a corrugated metal wall. On her Instagram, you can also see a couple of production shots.

Located at 1210 Wedgwood Avenue, just west of 12th Avenue South. There is a small parking lot at this shopping center, and there is street parking on Wade Avenue just to the north. The mural faces Wedgewood, on the south side of the building.

October 28, 2019 0

Welcome to Goodlettsville

Goodlettsville Mural street art Nashville

The artist Kristy Oakley has developed something of a series of community murals, all with large block letters featuring local landmarks. There is one for Donelson, one for East Nashville, and very recently, one for Goodlettsville. And very recently – the dedication for this one is scheduled for November 4th. It was sponsored by the Goodlettsville Chamber of Commerce and lies on the south wall of Perk Up Cafe & Gifts. It includes landmarks like the Connor Memorial United Methodist Church, the Bowen Plantation House, the Old Stone Bridge, the old Bank of Goodlettsville building (now occupied by Artists on Main), Moss Wright Park, the old Goodlettsville High School, and Goodlettsville City Hall. And there’s more! Oakley also did some work on the front of the building (see slideshow below) and the back. The back two panels were done first for the owners of Perk Up, who wanted to cover some plain wood panels. (I’m not sure who did the signs on the front.) Tim Ellis, Goodletesville’s City Manager, has a picture on his Twitter page of the mural as it was about three-fourths finished (where you can see that Oakley worked from the bottom up and right to left). He also calls this “Mural number 1”, implying the Chamber has more murals planned. I’ll certainly be looking for them.

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Perk Up murals street art Nashville Goodlettsville

Goodlettsville Signature mural street art Nashville

Located at 136 South Main Street (Dickerson Pike) in Goodlettsville. There is parking at Perk Up and it’s plausible to park on East Avenue (which faces the mural) for a short period of time. Perk Up is closed on Sundays and after 3 or 4 the rest of the week – when it’s open, someone is likely to be parked in front of the main mural.

October 26, 2019 0

Bearded Iris Brewing, Makeover Edition

In January 2017, just a few months after starting this blog, I wrote about an interesting wall of graffiti on the rear side of Bearded Iris Brewing. I even called it “Part 1,” because I intended to come back and write about the less interesting graffiti on the building that faced that back wall of Bearded Iris, on the other side of the Cumberland River Greenway. Well, that building got torn down to make way for a parking lot, and the graffiti was replaced by this giant sign for Bearded Iris done by Eastside Murals. (The graffiti off to the left is still there, and might get a blog post someday.) This mural is reminiscent of another recent work by Eastside Murals covering the entirety of the Molly Green building at McFerrin Ave and Main Street. While the color scheme is quite different, that work also features thick flowing lines and large circles. I recently got good photos of it, so look for it on the blog soon. The featured photo above is angled because, as you can see below, trying to take a photo straight on mostly just gets you a picture of trees! The Bearded Iris Brewing logo, which you can see in the upper right of the mural and on the tanks located on the front of the building, doesn’t look much like a bearded iris flower to me but more like a stylized fleur-de-lis. Your mileage may vary.

Located at 101 Van Buren Street. The mural faces east, along the Cumberland River Greenway. There is a paid parking lot directly in front of it, but you can probably park for free for a little while in Bearded Iris’s parking lot (look for the tanks), longer if you stop in for a brew!

October 23, 2019 0

La Rosa’s birds

While Charlotte Pike is bustling, it remains the mix of old Nashville and immigrant Nashville that it’s been for many years. Full-scale gentrification is hitting north and south of the corridor, particularly in The Nations, but Charlotte retains a lot of its older character. Meaning there’s a lot of local businesses and thus a lot of opportunities for outdoor art. It has the potential to be as prolific as lower Gallatin, but it’s not quite there yet. One artist doing his part is JamersonSGC, who frequently tags his pieces “Low Key Art” (though not this piece). Here his style is more loose and cartoony than the majestic work in Day Dreamin, which is perhaps appropriate for La Rosa Cafe, a night club and hookah bar that also serves up wings and pizza. There used to also be a frightened chicken on the front wall (which may be by someone else), but it has since been painted over (See below).

Located at 6317 Charlotte Pike. There is plenty of parking here.

October 21, 2019 0

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