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We Are Nashville – Main Street

The best view of the We Are Nashville installation at 916 Main Street is where the Holleman Transmission building used to stand. It was taken down by bulldozers, in preparation for new development. But the photographic mural features the staff of the local fashion line Molly Green, whose Main Street branch once stood next door to Holleman, and which was almost completely destroyed by the March 3 tornado. We Are Nashville is an anonymous collaborative that for the last two years has been documenting who Nashville is today. They have begun to put up wheat-paste installations of the resulting photographs, with QR codes that lead to their website where you can learn the stories behind the images. The start of their campaign to present these photos and stories to the city coincided with the tornado and its aftermath, so it makes sense that some of the early installations are about the people and stories of the storm.

Three stories are part of this particular installation – the destruction of Molly Green, the damage to a historic home in Donelson and its surrounding neighborhood, and the aftermath of the storm in North Nashville and Germantown.

In the center and the far left, we see the people of Molly Green, standing in the ruins of their Main Street store.

We Are Nashville mural street art
From left, Brandon Hartwell, Proprietor; Kelsey Wells, Web and Social Director; Brittany Hartwell, Proprietor; Heather Johns, Visual Merchandising Director; Jessica Lanier, Store Manager; and Mary Lokey, Stylist.

If you were to stand where the photographer stood now, you would see the mural to your direct right, as the Molly Green building has been leveled.

The left side of the mural includes a closeup portrait of Molly Green staffer Heather Johns, but it’s mostly is a portrait of ten-year-old London outside her great-grandfather’s home, David Young Sr. Parts of the home date back to 1870, and if you click on the Donelson story above you’ll see it was more damaged than it appears in this photo.

WAN Molly Green Left

On the right side, we see an image from the immediate aftermath of the tornado in North Nashville. Here, parishioners of the Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church on Monroe Street pray together after the storm, their badly damaged church in the background. (The We Are Nashville site does not identify the young man featured in the photo.) This same image is part of an installation at the largely destroyed Music City Cleaners building at Jefferson and 7th.

 We Are Nashville mural street art

A little ways away, about where I stood when I took the photo at the bottom of this post, there are three smaller portraits of Molly Green staffers. They are on the backside of Attaboy. The only deaths recorded in Davidson County from the March 3 storm were of two people who left Attaboy just as the tornado was approaching.

We Are Nashville mural street art
From left, Mary Lokey, Stylist; Heather Johns, Visual Merchandising Director; Jessica Lanier, Store Manager; and Brandon Hartwell, Proprietor.

These are obviously all temporary. Wheat-paste murals don’t tend to have a long shelf life. Like the recent also temporary installation at Jerry’s Artarama a few blocks away, they both memorialize the damage suffered from the storm as well as highlight the strength of Nashville as a community. There is something else about them that speaks to the temporary nature of all art. Just below the four portraits above stands the only remaining fragment of the largest work of art destroyed by the March 3 storm, the wrap-around mural by Eastside Murals that once covered all of Molly Green.

We Are Nashville mural street art

The photographs of the main mural also cover up an old graffiti mural by the UH Crew. You can see some of the process of the mural’s installation on We Are Nashville’s website.

Located at 916 Main Street. The mural faces east, away from downtown, towards McFerrin Avenue. There is street parking on McFerrin on both sides of Main Street.

The Spirit of Nashville

The “Spirit of Nashville” posters are all over town. You’ll find them in offices, restaurants, and homes all around Nashville. They are the product of Anderson Design Group  (formerly part of Anderson Thomas Design, Inc.) and first appeared in 2003 when founder and lead designer Joel Anderson got the idea for a calendar of hand-drawn retro posters capturing the essence and history of Nashville. Realizing they had far more than twelve ideas, ADG has been producing new posters ever since for the series. There’s even a book that has gone through multiple editions, Spirit of Nashville—The Art & Soul of Music City.  According to their store’s web page about the series, “This project has been a 16-year collaboration of 17 ADG staff artists, researchers, historians, illustrators, printers, calligraphists, and designers.”

The art on the outside of the building, including the large Sprint of Nashville mural, are all metal prints from the series. The mural is a variation of a 2019 design by Anderson himself called “Spirit of Nashville: Leaning Cowboy,” and you can get a print in several sizes. There are many designs honoring all kinds of Nashville icons and institutions. On the first picture of the building below, you can see two large posters (there’s another around the backside), “Music City Pinup Girl” and “State Flag Skyline.” In the middle of the is a small plaque – “Photo Opportunity.” ADG knows something about selfie culture!

Below are some other pictures of the building, and the signs on the ADG store. I put in two angled shots because a couple of the posters are hidden in a straight-on view, and the poster on the backside of the building (“Music City (Man)“) is at the end of the slide show.

Anderson posters Nashville mural street art

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Located at 116 29th Ave North. Street parking is available.

300

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This is post number 300. For this post, I’m updating on the art I know is now gone. The photo above is an Emily Miller piece once found at the corner of Main and McFerrin. Much of Miller’s work is deliberately temporary, drawn on paper and glued to outdoor walls. Her pieces are more durable than you might think, however, and in fact, this one was deliberately removed when the building was repainted. That’s the fate of most of the works listed here – they have been painted over. Others are gone because the building they stood on is gone.

The blog itself is getting a little better all the time. Statistics wise, since I started it in July 2016, 5450 people have visited the blog for a total of 11,006 page views. Modest, but it has been growing. From a couple hundred views a month when I got started, 800 and 900 has become common, it looks like the blog is about to close in on the second month in a row and third overall for more than 1000 views. The empire grows slowly.

All art is temporary, outdoor art in particular. A list, probably incomplete, of art I have chronicled that is gone or substantially erased. (I will be updating these posts in the coming weeks):

Ask not who the wrecking ball calls for (one building destroyed, another painted over)

The Vape USA Gallery (painted over)

The doomed graffiti wars of Madison Mills (painted over)

Unsafe at any speed (painted over)

Ch-ch-ch-changes! (removed – the Miller piece above)

The Carquest Gallery, Part 1The Carquest Gallery, Part 2 (partially painted over)

Where you at?! (painted over)

Color me gone – soon (building destroyed)

The ghost of craft beers past (painted over)

A flower grows in East Nashville (painted over; replaced with new mural)

Going, going gone (painted over)

Sorry you missed the show (painted over)

Children’s Art on Jefferson Street (removed)

Super visible, very temporary, hard to reach (replaced with a billboard)

Woodland creatures, Part 1 (severely deteriorated, and then removed)

The Zoop Gallery on 8th South (removed and/or deteriorated, replaced)

The ruins of 21st and Linden (lost to construction)

Oz Arts Inside/Out, Part 2 (removed)

On imagined seas (painted over, replaced with new mural)

Big Blue (painted over, replaced with new sign)

Frutas! (partially painted over, replaced with new mural)

Wanda (painted over, replaced with new mural)

On a dark sea

Miller Shark

On a night when a fantastic and frightening storm bears down on Texas, a simple denizen of the sea. Although unsigned, this is obviously an Emily Miller piece, she of the animal drawings (and other subjects) glued to buildings around town. There is a twin of this one on her Instagram page. Actually, looks like this one is too. Given that shot is dated June 30, 2017, and this one from just two months later is fairly faded, and given this is paper stuck to the wall, like much of her art, we have to call this endangered art. As is true about a lot of south Texas right now.

Located at what is probably 425 Chestnut Street. Southern Country Furniture (no apparent website) next door is at 427 Chestnut. The shark is on a garage door of a seemingly abandoned stone building right next to the tracks. There is parking in front and beside the building, and a gravelly area across the street. Shop for furniture and enjoy the art!

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.

Guitars and automobiles

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Just because of how many artists are involved, this is a complicated mural to talk about. The “Gibson Tribute Wall” is a product of the Nashville Walls Project. The NWP is a collective of artists and local leaders, organized by Brian Greif, that seek to cover much of downtown and beyond with major art pieces, and are already responsible for a number of major projects. It’s sponsored in part by Gibson Custom Division, and FirstBank donated in particular for this piece. While the NWP seeks to bring in international artists for its projects, this mural was put together by Nashville artists. Starting at far left, the striped deer with butterflies is by Herb Williams, who is known for his multicolored animals, large and small, including a tiny butterfly that seems to have escaped the main mural (see below). Next is a work by Chris Zidek, who signs his work Zidekahedron and among other things did the octopus in Uncovered! Sam Dunson is responsible for the laughing hashtag man, while Emily Miller‘s work is recognizable to anyone who’s been in this town for very long (and keeps their eye open for guerrilla poster art). Finally, the young boys fishing on Leggo blocks are the work of Brian Donahue, who, like your intrepid blogger, is a professor at Tennessee State University.

Located at 213 Third Avenue North, between Chruch and Union, on the north wall of the building. The lot in front of the mural is a Premiere Parking lot, which Google Maps labels as Bank Alley. Bank Alley crosses Printer’s Alley just to the right of this mural. Obviously, there’s parking, but like just about everywhere downtown, it’s not free. The mural is well lit – grab a taxi or a ride share and make it part of your pub crawl on Printer’s Ally!

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Oz Arts Inside/Out, Part 4

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Seems I missed one of the Oz Arts Inside/Out installations when I first reported on them. There is, in fact, a display at Meharry Medical College. Many of the people in this mural are wearing Meharry gear, and there was a shoot for the project at Meharry last June, so I’m assuming all of these people are Meharry folk. See Part 1 for more details. The two blocked faces are below.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Located at 1003 Dr. D.B. Todd Jr. Blvd, on the east facing wall of the Office of Information and Technology (otherwise know as the Computer Center, per the sign). The Computer Center lies on the block between Meharry Blvd. and Albion Street. This is dead in the middle of a large university complex (Fisk University is across the street), so parking is problematical. There is a paid parking garage on Albion. The spaces in front of the mural are reserved, though for a quick visit in the late afternoon you can probably get away with using them.

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