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Art now, art past

Tropical landscape mural street art Nashville

This whimsical piece is found behind Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School on the south wall of the Horton Paper Services building. It’s a little worse for wear, as it has begun to peel in places. Facing south puts it in the sun all day, and that seems to have done some damage. It’s not age – Google street view images from March 2015 show only some graffiti tags here. They also show another mural on the west wall, one that is quite gone, for today the west wall is painted a solid blue. The mural you see below is no more. That’s one thing I’m trying to do with this blog – document art before it disappears. All art is ultimately impermanent, but outdoor art has to deal with the elements, the whims of owners and vandals, and the seemingly relentless pace of development here in Nashville. Here I try to archive some things before they are lost (the mural in the header photo for this blog, of course, is gone, painted over right about the time I started this enterprise).

UPDATE: I know now this piece is a TBS/MAG4 piece (MAG4 is apparently a member of a crew that goes by TBS. Other members seemed to have been involved in this.)

Located at 614 18th Avenue North, on the south wall of Horton Paper Services. Parking on a school day is little tight, and a lot of the street parking is presently taken up by construction workers who are building an extension to the school. Across the street is a heavily decorated semi-trailer that seems to be more or less permanently parked. I’ll feature some of that work later.

Abstract mural street art Nashville

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Actually, kind of dry

Moist graffiti mural street art Nashville

 


Ordinarily, I’d use a better lit photo, but this is from the only set I have or ever will, because this installation has been erased. My photos from March 30 will have to do. There is a “moist” campaign in town. In The doomed graffiti wars of Madison Mills I noted the first instance of it in this blog, but there’s much more. A giant smokestack off the Jefferson Street bridge sports the word. And pay attention to electrical utility boxes. Often they have letters and numbers on them, made from those stickers you get at the hardware store, stuff that only makes sense to the electric company. Some clever folks have bought the same letters to add the word “moist.” Look around, you’ll find some.

This was located on a retaining wall just east of the Bagel Face at 700 Main Street, next to the Mapco at 702, behind the Turnip Truck on Woodland. You can still see traces, but every canvas has an owner.

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The doomed graffiti wars of Madison Mills

Blue graffiti tag street art mural NashvilleLook closely at the blue tag above. It lies on top of a larger gray tag, which has been scribbled out. Below is another tag on the old factory that, while not covered, has also been scribbled over.

graffiti tags street art mural Nashville
The back and forth mirrors the back and forth over the future of this site. Plans for a major development with hundreds of new apartments have been abandoned due to solid opposition from neighbors and concerns over traffic. However, it’s impossible to imagine this property will simply sit untouched, an eternal canvas for taggers. It’s bound to give way when the right project comes along. There are a number of tags around the complex; below are some of the most interesting. The two above are on the east side, alongside the Station 40 apartments, as is the black and white face below. The next two below are on the west side, and the one at the bottom, which is the first entry from the ongoing “moist” campaign found around town, is on the front side facing Charlotte.

UPDATE: Most of this has been painted over, though a few new tags have appeared.

Located at 4101 Charlotte Avenue. Parking available at Station 40, at the complex with Beer Pale and Flip Burger, and on the factory grounds itself. The parking at the 42nd Avenue entrance to the factory grounds is apparently being used as overflow for Flip Burger and other nearby businesses. Use caution as it is an abandoned industrial site.

graffiti face street art mural Nashville
Maroon graffiti tag street art mural Nashvillegraffiti tag street art mural Nashville
graffiti tag street art mural Nashville

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The Vape USA Gallery

Graffiti Pharaoh street art mural Nashville

Besides auto places, other kinds of establishments are frequently sites of public art — convenience stores, tattoo parlors, barber shops, and new to the list, vape stores. The Vape USA store just south of Grassmere on Nolensville Pike (not to be confused with the Vape USA store a couple miles north on Nolensville) is a good example. Not sure about signatures. Most of the text seems to refer to vaping products, though “P1107” is a mystery to me.

UPDATE: This work has been painted over.

Located at 3807 Nolensville Pike, a few hundred yards south of the entrance to the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere. Plenty of parking. Not a vaper myself, so I can’t vouch for the merchandise!

Graffiti cartoons street art mural NashvilleDog jetpack cartoon street art mural

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Ask not who the wrecking ball calls for

Graffiti tags street art mural Nashville

I had to actually pull aside a mattress that was blocking this interesting installation on a small gray building on Hart Street. Despite a “no dumping” sign, some people seem to have been doing just that. The fate of this piece is uncertain. I found it while taking pictures of the tags on the building next door, which sports a zoning change meeting sign proposing a switch from industrial-warehouse to mixed use. The building below with tags is almost certainly a goner; the fate of its neighbor and the piece above remains to be seen.

UPDATE: Not sure why I didn’t notice before, but that’s a clear TBS crew tag in the top right.

UPDATE: The building below has been demolished, and the building above has been painted over.

Located on the west side of the building at 1260 Hart Street. The building below is at the corner of Hart and 2nd Avenue South, for the time being. Makeshift street parking nearby. Up the hill on 3rd Avenue are the enormous installations on the Unique Autos building. I’ll feature those soon.

Graffiti tags street art Nashville

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And we’re back!

Graffiti tags mural street art Nashville
Your intrepid blogger has returned from vacation, just in time to find this installation without cars parked in front of it! Found on the backside of Asphalt Beach on Woodland Street in East Nashville, this piece is familiar to anyone who has parked around back of Five Points Mexican Cantina or the bank next door, though it is often partly obscured by parked cars. It is obviously the product of the same crew that produced the enormous installation on the KM Auto Inc building at 1808 Nolensville Rd featured in “It’s cold out there!” Many of the same signatures are featured, such as “Rasmo,” and the “UH” symbol appears here as well.

UPDATE: This mural was damaged by the March 3, 2020 tornado. Its fate is uncertain. See What we lost in the storm.

UPDATE: The post-tornado repairs to this building have destroyed most of this mural.

Located on the backside (north) of Asphalt Beach at 961 Woodland Street. Easily accessed by the alley that runs between Woodland and Main.

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Tunnel of art

Graffiti street art mural Nashville
You know what doesn’t work well when sweat from your forehead pours on it? iPhones don’t. I took these on a July bike ride, and it wasn’t easy!

There is both official and unofficial public art along Nashville’s greenways; this falls in the official category. And the recent category, too, as these murals went up on both ends of the Two Rivers Tunnel in May. Dante Bard and Troy Duff produced these murals as part of Metro Arts THRIVE project. The one above is at the east end of the tunnel and is Duff’s work; Bard’s work below is on the west end.

Located on the stretch of greenway that links the Shelby Bottoms greenway to the Stone River Greenway, under the Briley Parkway between the Two Rivers water park and the Cumberland pedestrian bridge. Park at the water park and walk north up the greenway, or grab a bike and zip past them as you fly by. Just remember to yield to pedestrians! “On your left!”

Mural street art Nashville Greenway

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