nashville public art

WW2Main

It’s Memorial Day, and so it’s a good day to look at one of the more striking war memorials in Nashville, the Tennessee World War II Memorial found on the grounds of the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park. Like the rest of the park, it was built to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the 1796 founding of Tennessee, though it was not finished and dedicated until November 11, 1997 (Veteran’s Day). The primary feature, which children (and adults!) love playing with is the eight-ton carved stone globe, which rests on a cushion of flowing water and can be easily pushed into different angles, though it rotates on its own due to the flowing water. In front of the globe is a stone platform littered with stars honoring the 5,731 Tennesseans who died in WW2. Ten pillars, five on each side, line the east and west of the platform. Reflecting the direction one travels to get to Europe or Asia from Tennesee, the ones to the east depict moments from the war in Europe, while those on the west depict moments from the war in the Pacific. To the south is a long bench with the names of seven Tennesee recipients of the Medal of Honor. A time capsule lays buried in front of that bench.

Many minds and hands went into designing and building this monument. General Enoch Stephenson led a committee of veterans, originally appointed by Governor Ned McWherter, which oversaw design and construction. The memorial was designed by Tuck-Hinton Architects, Ross/Fowler, and EMC Structural Engineers. The memorial was built by Hardaway Construction. (Many thanks to the American Legion who gathered much of this information.)

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Located at 600 James Robertson Parkway (which is the address of the park). The memorial specifically is found on the north-west side of the park, along the 1000 block of Seventh Avenue North, and is about a block and half south of the 600 block of Jefferson Street. It lies across the street from the future home of the Tennesse State Museum, currently under construction. There is free parking in the park. This is a memorial, so please be respectful.

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Recycling

Art comes and goes depending on the needs of the sponsors. When I wrote about the art on the old Turnip Green/Plateone building, I wondered what would happen to the Seth Prestwood (@moldymonk) pieces on the north and south sides of the building since both businesses had left. So far, the one on the north side is unchanged. Recently, however, Jason Galaz incorporated the piece on the south side into new work featuring the artists Pat Reedy, Alicia Bognanno of Bully and Joshua Hedley. I suppose that’s a fancy way of saying Galaz painted over Prestwood’s mural, but the remaining visible parts of the older mural make a nice framing device for the new one. Galaz signs the mural with his name and #MuddyRoots. Galaz has done Muddy Roots Records murals before, such as the one found in BBQ music. Reedy is a Muddy Roots recording artist, though I’m not sure what relationship the other two artists have to the label/music festival. Certainly, musicians make sense on this wall, as the building now houses a branch of Fond Object. Muddy Roots has sponsored temporary murals before, like the one in Wanda, so it remains to be seen how long this one will remain in place. (The Wanda mural was on the side of the other branch of Fond Object, so there’s another link.)

FondObject2

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Located at 535 Fourth Avenue South. This is downtown, so not much in the way of free parking. There are paid lost nearby.

May 26, 2018 0

Spirit is within (and spirits are in bottles)

Woke3

This is a story of two murals. The building housing Northwest Liquors and Zap Market, located at the corner of Buchanan and D.B. Todd, lies at a prominent spot in the Buchanan Street neighborhood, so it’s a good place for a mural or two. Facing Buchanan is this Norf Collective piece signed by Woke3 that is an obvious companion to the mural featured in And her hair was an unfolded flower, featuring a male subject here instead of the female one seen in the other mural. (The website listed on the mural is a dead link.) On the south side of the building is a very different mural signed “Tracy the Rose 2016.” I can’t find anyone using that handle, but the subject is one that is found on some liquor stores. While not as ubiquitous as the tires painted on tire stores, they are other examples in town.

TracyTheRose

Located at 1613 Buchanan Street. There is plenty of parking at the liquor store, though cars are often parked in front of the murals so it might be advisable to visit on a Sunday.

May 24, 2018 0

Dutch Maid

DutchMaidWest

Large, three-dimensional signs like this one used to be common in America, but they’ve been out of style for decades. There are persistent survivors in Nashville, like the Weiss Liquor sign featured in A true Nashville survivor or the Ernest Tubb sign and others on Lower Broad. There are even some new ones on Broadway, given its place in local tourism. Other survivors are scattered around town, mostly on the Pikes. This one is located in the rapidly gentrifying The Nations neighborhood, and its fate is uncertain. The laundromat it advertises has long since closed its doors, and the windows are boarded up. It’s hard to imagine any developer tearing this wonderful icon down, but in go-go Nashville, it’s always a possibility. Call it endangered art.

DutchMaidEast

Located at 6227 Roberston Avenue, near the corner with Croley Drive. Plenty of parking on site.

May 21, 2018 1

Colorful Community

Sometimes you think the research will be easy, and it isn’t. This prominent piece on the corner of Rosa Parks and Taylor is signed in more than one place “Numberwalls.com Murals by Mike + Jenny.” Unfortunately, that website doesn’t exist anymore. But with some internet sleuthing and some help from the Wayback Machine, I was able to identify the artists as Mike Luckett and Jenny Luckett. (Jenny is now doing jewelry, but I am not sure what Mike does now.) A Wayback Machine snapshot of the Numberwalls.com site from November 2009 invites readers to view their “Colorful Community” mural which had been commisioned by Village Real Estate and was completed with the help of over one hundred volunteers from the neighborhood. It includes such icons as the State Capitol Building, the elevator towers of Public Square, and the Monroe Street United Methodist Church. The wall itself hides a parking/storage area that belongs to the Metro Development and Housing Agency.

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Located on the 1400 block of Rosa Parks Boulevard and the 800 block of Taylor Street. The best bet for parking is the Kroger across Taylor Street. There is some street parking on the 700 block of Taylor.

May 19, 2018 0

La Cocina Dominicana

There’s been a bit of a theme of lost art recently on this blog, and here is another example, but with a twist. The vibrant piece above is alive and well and advertising Dominican food on Nolensville Road. But what is now La Cocina Dominicana used to be Carribean Express, with a mural I featured in I’m just here for the food. That mural also featured the out of kilter parking sign, but Grenadian symbolism has now been replaced with Dominican imagery. Sadly, I never went to Carribean Express. I don’t intend to make that mistake again. The mural here is the work of Jose F. Vargas, who has worked on other Latino businesses and who I’ve featured before in posts like Gotta get that bling!.

Located at 4407 Nolensville Pike. There is parking in the back. If you are new to Dominican food, try the mofongo. Chow down and enjoy the art!

May 17, 2018 1

If you’re left alone

Sleeping girl mural street art Nashville

Entropy is real. All things eventually decay, all information is eventually lost, all art goes away. But sometimes it’s a little hard to take. I first saw this Norf Art Collective piece at 16th and Buchanan back in November. It was late in the day, and the shadows were long, and I didn’t think the light did the piece proper justice, so I put the photos in my “Needs to be reshot” file and made vague plans to shoot it again. Today was overcast, and I thought I’d try again. At first, unable to find it, I thought I had forgotten where it was. But then I realized I did remember where it was. It’s just that this entire wall and all the doors are now painted white. Sometime since November, whoever owns this building decided that a blank white space was better than this piece. I can’t imagine how that could be, but so it goes. I’m glad I have these pictures, that, after playing with filters, I think will give you a good idea of what used to be. The title of this post comes from the text on the right – see below.

Located (in the past) at 1510 Buchanan Street. There’s plenty of free street parking in this neighborhood, and some other art worth seeing on both Buchanan and Dr. D. B. Todd Blvd.

May 15, 2018 0

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