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Hunt Supply Co.

Hunt Supply mural street art Nashville

When is hidden art not hidden art? When it’s only visible from an alleyway, but that alleyway has a fair amount of foot traffic. Hunt Supply Co. supplies all your skateboarding needs and is found in an alley a couple doors back behind Beyond the Edge in the Five Points district. According to Google Maps, the alley is called “#929 Alley.” As a long-time resident of Lockeland Springs, which borders Five Points, this is news to me. Hunt Supply has been in place for a few years, long enough to acquire multiple stages of art. For some time, there was an Emily Miller wheat-pasted and skateboarding paper wolf just below the sign (see at the bottom). The current work is by David Wright of Manecoon Sign Company and an artist he credits as @_wanted_1 on Instagram (that account has no pictures or information). It features a western scene, which may or may not have much to do with skateboarding, but the wolf at the end mimics Miller’s piece. If you check out the Instagram page of Jason Hunt, the store’s owner, you’ll see a fair amount of wolf imagery, and the shop dog, Harley, has something of wolf-like look. There’s a large sign in the back which was also done by Wright.

UPDATE: This building and all its art was destroyed by the March 3, 2020 tornado.

Located at 118 South 11th Street D. The “D” means “behind.” There is a path that reaches from 11th to Hunt Supply, but the real front of Hunt Supply, and the main mural, faces the alley. The alley can be reached from the 1000 block Woodland Street between Five Points Pizza (at 1012) and Boston Common, aka Batter’d & Fried (at 1008 A). It can also be accessed from the 1000 block of Russell Street, next to the YMCA Community Action Program building at 1021, or from the paid parking lot next to Beyond the Edge.

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The Words of Armstrong Real Estate

Armstrong Realty mural street art Nashville

This little mural on the side of Armstrong Real Estate off Dickerson Pike has flummoxed me for a while. I was certain it was a Nathan Brown piece, as it is so similar to a style Brown has used before, such as in the mural featured in Bootstrap and an interior mural at Far East Nashville ( a restaurant I highly recommend). But it isn’t signed. And Brown’s style has been copied before, not this style, but his “geometric gradient style” that you can see in the mural featured in Topgolf. And the style “homage” is found in a mural that’s right next door! So I needed to be sure. Did I ever go over to Armstrong and ask. No, I kept putting it off. But I ran into Aaron Armstong on the trick-or-treat circuit, and he confirmed the artist’s identity. Dickerson Pike is well behind the parallel-running Gallatin, but with its increasing development, I would expect to see more art in the future. Of course, that also means a lot of the old signage on that road is endangered. The office also features a nice hand-painted sign on the front (I’m not sure who did that). And hey, I wonder who that is reflected on the glass? Hmmm.

Armstrong Realty Sign street art Nashville

Located at 1301 Dickerson Avenue. The mural is on the south of the building, facing Douglas Ave. The sign is on the east, facing Dickerson. There is plenty of parking here and next door.

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Welcome to Goodlettsville

Goodlettsville Mural street art Nashville

The artist Kristy Oakley has developed something of a series of community murals, all with large block letters featuring local landmarks. There is one for Donelson, one for East Nashville, and very recently, one for Goodlettsville. And very recently – the dedication for this one is scheduled for November 4th. It was sponsored by the Goodlettsville Chamber of Commerce and lies on the south wall of Perk Up Cafe & Gifts. It includes landmarks like the Connor Memorial United Methodist Church, the Bowen Plantation House, the Old Stone Bridge, the old Bank of Goodlettsville building (now occupied by Artists on Main), Moss Wright Park, the old Goodlettsville High School, and Goodlettsville City Hall. And there’s more! Oakley also did some work on the front of the building  (see slideshow below) and the back. The back two panels were done first for the owners of Perk Up, who wanted to cover some plain wood panels. (I’m not sure who did the signs on the front.) Tim Ellis, Goodletesville’s City Manager, has a picture on his Twitter page of the mural as it was about three-fourths finished (where you can see that Oakley worked from the bottom up and right to left). He also calls this “Mural number 1”, implying the Chamber has more murals planned. I’ll certainly be looking for them.

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Located at 136 South Main Street (Dickerson Pike) in Goodlettsville. There is parking at Perk Up and it’s plausible to park on East Avenue (which faces the mural) for a short period of time. Perk Up is closed on Sundays and after 3 or 4 the rest of the week – when it’s open, someone is likely to be parked in front of the main mural.

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Bearded Iris Brewing, Makeover Edition

Bearded Iris Mural street art Nashville

In January 2017, just a few months after starting this blog, I wrote about an interesting wall of graffiti on the rear side of Bearded Iris Brewing. I even called it “Part 1,” because I intended to come back and write about the less interesting graffiti on the building that faced that back wall of Bearded Iris, on the other side of the Cumberland River Greenway. Well, that building got torn down to make way for a parking lot, and the graffiti was replaced by this giant sign for Bearded Iris done by Eastside Murals. (The graffiti off to the left is still there, and might get a blog post someday.) This mural is reminiscent of another recent work by Eastside Murals covering the entirety of the Molly Green building at McFerrin Ave and Main Street. While the color scheme is quite different, that work also features thick flowing lines and large circles. I recently got good photos of it, so look for it on the blog soon. The featured photo above is angled because, as you can see below, trying to take a photo straight on mostly just gets you a picture of trees! The Bearded Iris Brewing logo, which you can see in the upper right of the mural and on the tanks located on the front of the building, doesn’t look much like a bearded iris flower to me but more like a stylized fleur-de-lis. Your mileage may vary.

Bearded Iris Mural street art Nashville

Bearded Iris Tanks street art Nashville

Located at 101 Van Buren Street. The mural faces east, along the Cumberland River Greenway. There is a paid parking lot directly in front of it, but you can probably park for free for a little while in Bearded Iris’s parking lot (look for the tanks), longer if you stop in for a brew!

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Jerry’s Artarama

ARTARAMA mural street art Nashville

Of course an art supply store has a mural. This is particularly true if that art supply store is in Nashville. When the Nashville branch of Jerry’s Aratama moved from Antioch to East Nashville two years ago, it acquired a mural even before it opened. The mural appropriately features many of the colors you might want to create art from, pouring out of tubes of the primary colors, red, blue and…wait, yellow? Ok, not actually the primary colors. But you can get green from blue and yellow, so close enough. The main mural is a joint work by Hannah Holgate, who has been on this blog before, and Marshall Hall, who is making his debut here. Both Holgate and Hall work in the frame shop at this store. I live in this neighborhood, and pass this mural every day, so why has it taken two years to put this very obvious mural on the blog? I got pictures of it a long time ago, but after that, the artists added their signatures, so I needed new ones. And the combination of an empty parking lot and good light eluded me for months. But it is just as well, as I can add the tubes of paint Hall recently put in every parking space (minus the handicapped spaces). There are eighteen in all, and all a little different. This is a very art dense spot, and as a result, this may be the most image dense article on this blog! It’s worth noting that Jerry’s Artarama is a national chain, breaking the rule that national chains don’t so local outdoor art. But of course, this is an art supply chain, and that rule is beginning to break in Nashville anyway. The slideshows below are 1) closeups of the mural and 2) four sets of the paint tubes, running east to west. There are also some signs in the parking lot, painted on artist’s palettes. You might notice some pallets (not the artist kind but the moving stuff kind) in a couple photos – those seem to be a permanent feature of the site.

UPDATE: The main mural on the wall, including the corrugated metal door, was severely damaged in the March 3, 2020 tornado. Most of it was lost, and what’s left of it will probably have to be replaced. One of the signs was damaged, but the parking lot is fine. See What we lost in the storm.

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Located at 713 Main Street. Obviously, there is parking, though you will inevitably park on top of some art. A good strategy is to get there before they are open (10:00 am every day except Sunday when they open at noon) and park next door.

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Follow the yellow brick road

Yellow Brick Road mural

Is Nashville really Oz? It’s certainly an Emerald City in Anthony’s Billups’s mural for The Griff Apartments. The skyline is roughly what you would see looking south from The Griff’s roof, minus the yellow brick road and the poppies and trees. That’s Topgolf off to the left, and of course the Batman Building in the middle. Like the Eiffel Tower for Paris, all images of Nashville’s skyline must have the Batman Building. The brown building on the right is presumably the old meatpacking plant across the street from The Griff, which is in the habit of catching on fire. The mural decorates a utility box that would otherwise just be a concrete slab and is further evidence that more and more, Nashville businesses know they need art. Billups, who is part of Music City Murals, also did some signage in The Griff’s garage that is in a very different style (see slideshow below) from this mural. I could not discern a signature on the mural, but the staff, who informed me who the artist was, said that it is hidden in there somewhere. Maybe if you follow the yellow brick road you’ll find it and the wizard. I’m guessing the wizard lives at the top of the Batman Building.

Yellow Brick mural street art Nashville

 

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Located at 1390 Adams Street. The mural is actually on Taylor Street, on the south side of the building, facing Adams Street. The entrance to the garage is on the north side of the building, and the signs on the first floor. There is some street parking on Adams, and guest parking in The Griff’s parking garage.

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King Solomon Gyros

Solomon Gyros sign mural street art Nashville

If you’ve ever driven down lower Gallatin, you’ve seen the sign. You may even have picked up a meal or twenty there. I usually get the combo plate, but this Scene article makes me think I’ll get the gyro sandwich next time I drop by King Solomon Gyros. Sadly, I do not know who made this sign. The business has exchanged hands in the last several months, and the current owners don’t know who the sign maker was. There’s also some reason to be concerned about the future of this business, as recently this property and the old church next door were bought by James Higgins and Richard Piliponis for $1.02 million. One would hope they don’t mess with a very successful take-out place. The two men, who also own Noble’s Kitchen & Beer Hall right down the street (site of the mural featured in A noble brew), seem to be planning on turning the former New Destiny Christian Fellowship into a pub named Eastwood Assembly. Some of the nearby neighbors have read the word “pub” to mean “bar” and have voiced opposition. The Nashville Post article previously linked also notes that the church building has structural issues that have put plans on hold for now. Again, one would hope Higgins and Piliponis have no plans for King Solomon’s besides collecting a reasonable rent.

UPDATE: The sign was produced by David Wright of Manecoon Sign Company.

Located at 716 Gallatin Ave, at the corner with Chicamgua Avenue, across from Kroger. Solomon has parking, and street parking is available, but really you should admire the mural as you pass through the drive-through!

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