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

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Maybe you’d like some art?

MaiBee

At the site of the former Chief’s Family Diner on Buchanan Street, a new restaurant has opened, Mai-Bee’s Southern Cuisine. But this is not a food blog, (most of the time!) so what gets it noticed here is the mural, courtesy of Murals and More, the business home of artist Michael Cooper. Mai-Bee’s is a family owned, family run operation, and the mural and the restaurant honor the memory of the family matriarch. It’s new, and little bare bones, but definitely worth a try. And you get more art bang for your buck, because And her hair was an unfolded flower is right next door! The Buchanan Street corridor is beginning to see a number of new business. How it handles possibilities of gentrification remains to be seen.

UPDATE: This work has been painted over, as the business closes and has been replaced.

Located at 1200 Buchanan Street. The mural faces 12th Avenue North. There is some parking at Mai-Bee’s and street parking is available. Grab some grub and enjoy the art!

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Music on two wheels

GreenleafNat

Since last summer, a collection of musical greats has been freewheeling on the east wall of Green Fleet Bicycle Shop, courtesy of @doughjoe, otherwise known as Yusef Hubb. Stevie Wonder, Etta James, Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin and Little Richard are all getting a little crazy, though how Hendrix is managing to ride and play at the same time — well, he’s Jimi Hendrix. You don’t question. Hubb, who is part of the Norf Collective, frequently depicts musicians in his work, such as in An icon under the bridge, revisited. The #ridenorf tag references a Jefferson Street Art Crawl from last June. Green Fleet Bicycle Shop, besides being a place to get a new bike or repair your old one, also does bicycle tours of Nashville and will rent you a bike to do a tour on your own. The bike store grew out of Green Fleet Messengers, which is still going strong.

Located at 934 Jefferson Street. The mural faces east. There is some parking at the store, including around back (best accessed from Enoch Jones Blvd.) Not much street parking nearby, so you might have to walk a bit. Hey, you were going to rent a bike anyway, right?

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Fly me to the moon (2.0)

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This is an Emily Miller piece, she of the guerilla poster art (and more!). Keep an eye out, you’ll see more of her work around town. A lot of it is animal-themed, but here she goes in another direction – up! This particular space traveler is found on the backside of 1006 Buchanan Street. If you look for that address on Google it leads you to Otis James, who makes bespoke clothing. The web page suggests the business is in Oak Ridge, but the Facebook page puts it here in Nashville on Buchanan. Call them, or just order online if you are interested. I might need a new hat. Regardless, this is paper art outdoors so I have to call it endangered art.

UPDATE: I added 2.0 to the title because I realized this is the second time I’ve used that headline.

Located at 1006 Buchanan Street. The mural/poster is on the back wall. There’s a large green space around the building so it’s easy to approach. Street parking is available.

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And her hair was an unfolded flower

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Located in in the heart of the Buchanan Street neighborhood, this is impressive piece is a Norf Collective creation, signed by Woke3 (also known as Jay Jenkins). The Buchanan Street area has begun to see signs of gentrification. The building this work is on, which apparently used to be an auto body store, is currently unoccupied, its fate unknown. It’s hard to believe a future tenant would want to remove this mural, but I think we still have to qualify this as endangered art. (The title was inspired by a line from a Yeates poem.)

Located at 1114 Buchanan Street, at the corner with 12th Avenue North. Street parking available on 12th. And maybe grab a bite at Mai-Bee’s Southern Cuisine across the street, which sports a mural of its own I’ll feature later.

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Freedom Riders on Jefferson

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Particularly because of the work of the Norf Collective, the Jefferson Street corridor has seen a recent explosion of murals and other public art. One of the oldest pieces on Jefferson, which helped kick start the public art movement along this historic street, is a Michael Cooper (of Murals and More) piece at the I-40 underpass. This 2009 piece was a collaboration between Cooper and local high school students. Cooper took drawings and designs from the students and turned them into a coherent mural. After Cooper drew it, students joined in painting it. The mural honors the Freedom Riders. Jefferson, of course, has long been the beating heart of the African American community in Nashville, and students from the three universities along the road, Fisk, Meharry Medical, and Tennesee State, were active in the Freedom Riders and numerous other activities in the Civil Rights era. The placement of the mural is poignant for another reason. I-40, I-65, and I-440 cut the Jefferson Street neighborhood into pieces, doing everlasting damage that the community continues to work to repair. Nashville is hardly the only city where the interstates were built through the heart of African American neighborhoods. It was a common practice. If you have wondered why some protesters have taken to blocking interstates, there’s definitely a history there. This mural has been vandalized in the past, which forced Cooper to coat it with a clear coating that makes vandalism easier to remove.

Located on the southwest side of the I-40 underpass on Jefferson Street, at the beginning of the 2500 block. Street parking is available across the street, though traffic can make crossing hard. Some parking is available at nearby business.

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Welcome to the garden

Garden Brunch Cafe mural by Norf Collective

In honor of the Jefferson Street Art Crawl which I visited this evening, some Jefferson Street art. Why, you might ask, is this picture taken at such an odd angle? Well, there’s a fence in the way. A fence that serves no obvious purpose other than blocking a clear view of this mural. This is a Norf Collective piece (their website is down as of this posting – I’ll add the link if it comes back up), done as part of the Jefferson Street Community Health Fair last August. See the Get healthy! post for more details. It’s found on the east wall of the Garden Brunch Café (which I recommend), so the depiction of a quiet garden makes sense.

UPDATE: Here’s their Facebook page. And the website is up and running.
UPDATE: The building has been painted black, and this mural is gone. The café is no longer in business.

Located at 924 Jefferson Street. If you are there for a meal, and why wouldn’t you be, the restaurant has parking in back. You can probably also park next door at Popeye’s or the church behind the Garden Brunch Café.

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Back in the Day

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The blog has been a little quiet of late because of computer problems at home, but the art keeps calling! This work by LaRhonda Angelisa (owner/operator of Painting Live), is found at the entrance to Jefferson Street Sound, which under the leadership of Lorenzo Washington bills itself as both a museum dedicated to and music studio inspired by the music scene found on Jefferson Street in the 1960s and ’70s. Appropriately, the mural honors two of the best-known figures to work on Jefferson Street, Jimi Hendrix and Billy Cox. Hendrix was only here in Nashville for a short while, but Cox has made his home here in Nashville for most of his life.

Located at 2004 Jefferson Street. Not much parking available right at the spot, so you might have to park a little ways away, perhaps at the bank across the street. The mural is found on the east side of the building, right at the entrance. Check out the mural, and head inside and visit the museum!

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