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Hyatt House and the Melting LP

Dripping vinyl mural street art Nashville

Nestled in the alcove that forms the entrance to the Hyatt House Nashville at Vanderbilt (actually a couple blocks north of Vandy) is this large image (it’s around ten feet high). It looks for all the world like a viny LP record that is melting, dripping in thin streams of color down the panel. If you’re just walking down the street, it jumps out in stark contrast from the white wall behind it, as you can gather from the context shots below. A deconstructed vinyl record in rapidly developing Midtown seems appropriate, particularly since it is just a few steps away from the Rock Block, itself threatened by growth. It’s by Eastside Murals, with a discreet signature on the side. Instead of their more common way of working by painting directly on walls, this work is on a large wooden panel. The wall it sits on is alternately smooth and rough, and you can see from the picture of the signature below, the artists shaped the wood accordingly. Is it coincidence that the void in the middle is the perfect place to stand to get your picture taken?

Dripping vinyl mural street art Nashville

Hotels frequently use art, sometimes on a grand scale, but I think a giant wooden panel painted by local artists on the outside of a hotel is a little unusual. It certainly fits with the theme that Nashville business, even corporate chains, see outdoor art as a necessary part of their business plan.

Located at 2100 Hayes Street. The mural is on the south side of the building facing Hayes, near the corner with 21st Avenue North. There is street parking on Hayes.

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The Once and Future Elliston Place Soda Shop

Elliston Soda Sign mural street art Nashville

It says it there right on the sign. “Good Food Since 1939.” Many a Nashvillian has fond memories of Elliston Place Soda Shop. I’ve had a few burgers there myself. Recently, escalating rents almost forced owner Skip Bibb to close the restaurant for good, but Nashville developer Tony Giarratana bought the restaurant to prevent that fate, promising to renovate and reopen it this year. Recently it was announced that the soda shop would move next door, into a larger 1907 building that once housed the Cumberland Telephone Exchange. That means that everything in and on the old building that Giarratana plans to incorporate in the new site must be removed from the old. The three-dimensional neon sign that once welcomed customers has already been taken down, leaving behind this hand-painted sign (and Purity Dairies ad, who probably paid for it). It’s not clear how old it is, but the only other example on the internet of a hand-painted Purity mural I could find is in Smyrna, TN and it dates back to the late 1950s. Given the wear-and-tear on this one, that’s a probable approximate date for the Elliston sign as well. It certainly can’t be pre-1946, when Ezell’s Dairy became Purity. Since Elliston Place Soda Shop is going into a new building, the fate of this sign is very much up in the air. Interestingly, in the very rough rendering for the new shop, a version of this sign is included. In fact, it’s actually a cut-and-pasted photo of the old sign. Either way, this one is almost certainly endangered art.

Located at 2111 Elliston Place. The sign is on the east side of the building, facing towards downtown. There is metered parking on Elliston Place, and some free parking on nearby streets.

 

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Obie’s no more?

Pizza Mural street art Nashvillle

Of late, Nashville’s “Rock Block,” located along Elliston Place, has been under threat. First, Gold Rush closed. More recently, there was a controversial move to rezone the lots at Elliston Place and Lousie Avenue, currently the site of three small buildings collectively known as the Louise Douglas apartments, to allow a 15-story hotel to be built on the spot. Such a building would tower over longtime music venues The End and Exit/In and radically alter the character of the neighborhood, not to mention eliminate some of the only reasonably affordable housing left in Midtown. After much public outcry, the rezoning measure was withdrawn, though the long-term future of the area remains uncertain. One troubling feature is the apparent closure of Obie’s Pizza, which lies in front of The End and just east of the apartments. It hasn’t been open in a couple of months or so. There is a sign on the door that says they will reopen soon, but the number at that link I gave for them has been disconnected, and there’s no sign of activity. So their mural, made for them by Tyler Z. Key, in all likelihood will disappear sooner than later. Call it endangered art. The mural has been edited at least once. On Key’s Instagram page, you can see that the mural once had a large signature at the bottom reading “TiiKii Art.” If you look close, you can see where it’s been painted over next to the blue hand. Key apparently decided to go with a more subdued signature, reading “TZ Key.” Either way, check it out soon while you still can.

Located at 2217 Elliston Place. The mural is on the west side of the building. There’s some free street parking in the area, but not a lot. You can probably get away with parking in the lot in front of the mural for a short time if you just want to grab a picture.

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Elliston Parking Garage – Part 4, Oner-Folek

Oner Folek mural street art Nasville

In my ongoing series on the Eliston Parking Garage, I’m getting a little out of order because it seems my photo collection is not complete (probably because there were cars in the way). So I’m skipping some first-floor art for now and moving to the second. This piece is on the north-facing wall, and is signed by Mobe Oner (aka Eric Bass) and Folek Kelof, who signs his work “Folek.” This, and the other murals in and on the building, are part of the Elliston Parking garage project organized by the Nashville Walls Project. In revisiting the garage, I realized the mural I featured in Part 3 (see below) was part of a three-part wraparound mural, so I’ll be updating that post as soon as I get more pictures.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Located at 207 Louise Avenue, just off Elliston Place. This piece is on the second floor on the north side of the building (there are stairs and an elevator). Most of the parking in this area is pay parking. The garage is permit parking, at least on workdays.

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Elliston Parking Garage – Part 3, Folek

Folek mural street art Nashville

This mural is a slight departure for this blog, as it in some sense inside. But from the lighting, you might notice it’s exposed to sunlight on one side. This piece by Folek Kelof, who signs his work with just “Folek,” is part of the Elliston Parking garage project organized by the Nashville Walls Project. The first two (see below) and the ones on the top floor are fully “outside,” while the rest are “inside” the parking garage, but ae very much exposed to the elements, and you don’t need a key or even to open a door to see them, so I think they fit. The mural seems to be flowers done in a style that implies graffiti. I don’t know any mural in town that looks quite like it.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 4

Located at 207 Louise Avenue, just off Elliston Place. This piece is on the bottom floor on the south side of the building. Most of the parking in this area is pay parking. The garage is permit parking, at least on workdays.

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Elliston Parking Garage – Part 2, Zidekahedron

Zidekahedorn mural street art Nashville

This is probably one of the better-known murals in town, at least for those who follow murals. For part 2 of my series on the Elliston Parking garage, I’m featuring one of two on the outside of the garage, besides the ones on the roof. I do intend to do the interior, which is a little different thing for this blog, but it’s an indoor/outdoor space, so I think it counts as “outdoor art.” This is unmistakably the work of Chris Zidek, even without his usual signature,  Zidekahedron. Colorful intertwining geometric forms and plenty of negative space is characteristic of much of his work. This piece, in particular, uses similar themes to that found in another work of his featured in One mural down, one mural up. It makes me a little antsy to have cars in this picture, but a) this is a perfect crop for sharing to Facebook and b) good luck not finding cars there. This is in fact how it usually looks, and the mural is not obscured, so I’ll live with the cars. As noted in Part 1, the Elliston Garage project was organized by the Nashville Walls Project.

Part 1 Part 3 Part 4

Located at 207 Louise Avenue, just off Elliston Place. The mural is on the east side of the building. Most of the parking in this area is pay parking. The garage is permit parking, at least on workdays.

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Elliston Parking Garage – Part 1, Audie Adams

Audie Adams mural street art Nashville

There are a handful of major art installations I haven’t gotten to, like the Berry Hill portraits, or the cartoon murals at Sadler and Grimrose,  or this one, the Elliston Parking Garage. Recently, I finally finished the Nations Wall project. I want to fill these obvious gaps because I am thinking of expanding the reach of this blog. Not that I need to for material – I have at least a hundred folders in my “Future Blog Posts” folder. But I’m beginning to think that restricting this blog to just Davidson County is artificial. A visit to Dallas-Ft. Worth, also known as the Metroplex, made me realize that I could never do a “just Dallas” or “just Ft. Worth” blog – they and the other many communities there are too intertwined. And it’s obvious that the art scene in Nashville is deeply connected to the arts in the surrounding counties. Many of the artists featured in this blog have done work in those counties, and the outdoor art scene in Nashville has definitely inspired work in those counties. So, this blog will be expanding – but not before I fill some obvious gaps.

About the mural and the garage – for years, the Elliston Parking Garage on Louise Avenue has been a giant canvas for graffiti taggers. This is a major reason why the owner offered the garage to Nashville Walls Project. Murals do curb graffiti. Taggers tend to be respectful of murals (not the least because there is an overlap between local muralists and local taggers). The installation of murals in this garage, however, has not eliminated tagging, but it there is less than before. This mural here is one of two murals on the outside of the garage (besides the ones on the roof level) – there are several inside. It is by Audie Adams who also goes by Audroc. He’s also part of the Thoughts Manifested collective, responsible for a number of murals in town. The birds and the font used are both common in his work.

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Located at 207 Louise Avenue, just off Elliston Place. The mural is on the south side of the building. Most of the parking in this area is pay parking. The garage is permit parking, at least on workdays.

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