Title: “Count on Me CLT”
Location: 4405 Central Avenue
Artist: Irisol Gonzalez
Date: 2020
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info:@irisolgonzalezart
Story: Count on Me CLT is a public service campaign created to help slow the spread of COVID-19. Working with Charlotte is Creative, the campaign has commissioned various artists to paint windows around the city with messages of social distancing, mask wearing, and reminders to wash your hands.
Key Formal Elements:
Gonzalez goes back to her childhood memories of a Spanish television character who always saves the day. In this case, the superhero character saves the day by wearing a mask. We can all be superheroes in the fight against the spread of COVID-19.
Location: E. 8th Street and Bascom along greenway trail
Artist: Irisol Gonzalez
Date: 2020
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @irisolgonzalezart
Story: The City of Charlotte loves murals. Their Urban Design Center and the Office of Sustainability are supporting local artists and filling Charlotte’s streets with murals. Artists from the City’s Placemaking Artist Pool installed street murals that capture dthe impact of COVID – 19 and the resiliency and sustainability of our city.
Key Formal Elements:
Gonzalez paints large water droplets as if they formed just after a rain. Inside the droplets, elders, friends and teachers invite us to look closer and see what “is truly important in our lives” according to the artist. Look and see if you can find the depiction of our Charlotte skyline.
Title: Yarn Bomb Rotating Gallery
Location: On the Rail Trail before Remount
Artist: Kelly Rose
Date: 2021
Media: Yarn
Artist Info: @kellyrosecreations
Story: Artist Kelly Rose is creating a yarn bomb rotating gallery along the South End Rail Trail as a way to spread positivity and engage the community. A craft, crochet, and fiber artist, Kelly Rose asked her apartment complex if she could add something to a fence along the rail trail. Thank goodness they said yes. She is planning changing fiber arts installations and looks forward to community input.
Key Formal Elements:
Never heard of yarn bombing? Yarn bombing is a type of graffiti or street art that uses colorful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fiber arts. Not meant to be permanent due to being outdoors in the elements, yarn bombs bring unexpected delight and surprise to locations and then one day they are gone. Catch them while you can! And check out WeCraft CLT for the latest in fiber arts in the Charlotte community.
Location: Charlotte Rail Trail
Title: "Magic Carpet Murals"
Artists: Jesse Unterhalter and Katey Truhn
Date: 2016
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @jessieandkatey
Story: Baltimore-based artists Unterhalter and Truhn created this piece with lots of community involvement. Community workshops were held with several different groups and locations to gather input for three separate murals along the Rail Trail. This artist duo is known for their large-scale murals and community-based art.
Key Formal Elements:
** Removed due to construction
Murals are supposed to be on walls, right. Not always. The artists use saturated color, patterns suggestive of textiles, and movement to create a dynamic and fun artwork literally on the rail trail. This mural rivals popular sites in NoDa for the most Instagrammed artwork. The uptown skyline makes a perfect background!
Location: 1401 Central Avenue on the back wall of the alley behind Midwood Smokehouse
Artist: Desism KTC-MPC
Date: 2016
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @thedesism
Story: Superheroes are the subject matter of this mural covering the wall that hides the trash collection areas for the restaurant.
Key Formal Elements:
Spiderman, Captain America, Ironman and other superheroes are the subject matter of this mural. Even Moms are depicted as superheroes. The owner of this business turned a potentially unattractive garbage collection area into an opportunity to showcase art. On your walk, see if you can imagine other spaces that could benefit from an artistic intervention.
Location: 1301 Thomas Avenue
Artist: Dakotah Aiyanna
Date: 2020
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @dakotahaiyanna
Story: The City of Charlotte loves murals. Their Urban Design Center and the Office of Sustainability are supporting local artists and filling Charlotte’s streets with murals. Artists from the City’s Placemaking Artist Pool are installing street murals that capture the impact of COVID – 19 and the resiliency and sustainability of our city.
Key Formal Elements:
For multidisciplinary artist Aiyanna, COVID was a time for introspection and more time for connecting with nature. In this street mural, she borrows a version of the iconic “You can do it” imagery but replaces a head for a flower. Perhaps her message is that if we remove our ego and become closer to nature our strength will grow.
Title: Presidents Cup Mural
Location: 401 South College
Artists: Sydney Duarte, @treazytreaz
Date: 2021
Media: Spray paint
Artist Info: @traveling_gypsy, @treazytreaz
Story: This mural celebrates the Presidents Cup, a biennial match-play golf event coming to Charlotte in 2022. The President’s Cup features teams from the United States and an International team of players not from Europe. Charlotte Center City Partners and the PGA commissioned the mural by Charlotte artist Sydney Duarte and Austrailian artist @treazytreaz. Duarte has murals on our uptown ArtWalks and NoDa ArtWalk.
Key Formal Elements:
What a celebration of golf, sports, and a hometown hero! One side of the mural is dedicated to the captain of the American team, Davis Love III, a Charlotte native and Hall of Fame golfer. With two colors of the South African flag, the other side honors Trevor Immelman, the International team captain.
Along the College Street side at pedestrian level, a nighttime skyline scene includes all the team colors and some super small details worth the look.
Find our mural running friend Mural Tours 704 at the bottom!
Title: “Where Inspiration and Strength Blooms”
Location: Beside Convention Center at light rail
Artist: Owl, Sam Guzzie, Kalin Renee Devone
Date: 2022
Media: Spray paint
Artist Info: @owl.clt, @samguzzie, @kalin_renee
Story: Three female artists came together to create the tallest mural in Charlotte. Sponsored by Charlotte Center City Partners and US Bank, each artist painted components of the mural blending each’s unique style to create the overall mural. Owl is a street artist and muralist and is very active in the Charlotte art scene. Sam Guzzie is a co-founder of Brand the Moth, an artists’ collective and community arts organization. Kalin Devone painted her first mural in 2020 for Talking Walls.
Key Formal Elements:
Where do you get inspiration from? For these artists each was inspired by the creative energy of the others. Owl’s swirling lines create a type of energy flowing through the composition. You can see her work in the bottom and on the right and left sides. Sam Guzzie often feels connected to an energy source in nature. Notice her leaves and fruit floating high above the figure. Kalin Devone is known for her oil portraiture rich in details, texture and highlights. Devone renders a portrait of her friend as a way to honor the strength and support of her friends. Together, three distinct styles produce a stunning mural.
Location: 1300 Central Avenue
Artist: Madman
Date: 2018
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist info: @madmanart
Story: : Phoenix-based Madman painted this mural for Talking Walls 2018, a city-wide mural festival. Madman began his career in graphic design and animation and now works nationally as a mural artist.
Key Formal Elements:
Notice all the walls around you with murals in this one area. The Moo & Brew restaurant owner is a sponsor of Talking Walls. Charlotte would not have murals on walls without strong support of art loving businesses. Thank you!
Location: 300 N. Tryon Street located on side wall down E. 7th Street
Artist: Caitlin McDonagh
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @caitlinmcdonagh
Story: Canadian artist and illustrator Caitlin McDonagh painted this mural as part of “Dripped on the Road” for Talking Walls 2019. “Dripped on the Road” is a traveling artist residency program based out of Brooklyn. For several weeks resident artists and mentors travel and camp in an RV in national parks, give talks to universities, and paint murals.
Key Formal Elements:
McDonagh is interested in folklore, fables, and fairy tales. And giving your imagination a workout. Follow the flowing ribbons in her composition through the trees, human-bird figure, eyes, and moon. Now tell your own story about what is happening here.
Title: “Man Feeding Poor Man”
Location: 330 N. Tryon Street along 7th Street side
Artist: University Park School students under direction of “Allen “Big Al” Carter
Date: 1992
Media: Acrylic paint
Story: American artist Allen “Big Al” Carter (1947 – 2008) was a prolific artist and educator and his art was widely exhibited and collected during his lifetime. While visiting Charlotte, the artist painted at different local sites and even participated in a panel discussion with local artists titled, “Public Murals Through Community Building.” Can you we this discussion now please?
Key Formal Elements:
1992 is so very long ago in the history of community murals and public art in Charlotte in general. To put it in perspective, the oldest other mural included on an ArtWalk is from 2008. The Public Art Commission in Charlotte started overseeing a public art program in 1993. Many thanks to Charlotte is Creative for posting historical research on this piece. This information was provided by Karen Beach and a 1992 paper “A Report on an Arts Administration Internship with Spirit Square Center for the Arts” by Karen L. Thompson.
Location: 111. E. 7th Street
Title: "Perspective"
Artists: Ann Duarte and Sydney Duarte with assistance from Nick Napoletano
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @traveling_gypsy, @duarte_designs
Story: This is a mural by the mother and daughter team of Duarte Designs, a relatively new mural artist team here in Charlotte as of 2019. As artists, they are interested in spreading positive messages of love, laughter, and hope. This mural was commissioned by Charlotte Center City Partners.
Key Formal Elements:
With the simplicity of a gray-scale figure and limited colors, the artists use this vertical, four-story mural to spread their message of happiness. With the Dr. Wayne Dwyer quote “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change” and their upside-down figure, their message is to see things differently. I feel happier already.
Location: 1200 S. Graham Street
Title: "The Muse"
Artist: Sam Guzzie
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @samguzzie
Story: Sam Guzzie is a local artist and founder of Brand the Moth, a non-profit organization creating community-based public art projects and supporting emerging artists with the META residency opportunity. This is her second mural in the Gold District.
Key Formal Elements:
The name of the former brewery at this site, Sunstead, is old English for Solstice. In this mural, the Muse, or the inspiration for an idea delights the viewer with her beauty and dancing.
What does your muse your like?
Location: 412 W. Palmer Street at former Palmer Game Bar
Artist: Irisol Gonzalez
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @irisolgonzalezart
Story: This mural is sponsored by Brand the Moth and their META Mural Artists Residency Program. Brand the Moth is a non-profit organization creating community based public art projects and supporting emerging artists with the META residency opportunity. Irisol Gonzalez is an artist from their inaugural residency program. Gonzalez works mainly in paint, watercolors, and colored pencils and was an artist for the ArtPop Street Gallery in 2019.
Key Formal Elements:
As a Latina raised in the United States, Gonzalez explores her heritage through the use of color and texture. The artist brings the flora and fauna of tropical Central America to an urban street corner. The inclusion of the Blue Macaw, a critically threatened bird native to South America and a bee, whose populations are in severe decline, could be a call to environmentalism. What messages may the variety of flowers and plants have in this context?
Title: “Salute” Wall Poem
Location: 118 W. 5th Street
Artist: Jennifer Garrison, Scott Nurkin
Date: 2014
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info:@muralshop
Story: Wall Poems of Charlotte is an effort to integrate poetry into urban areas of the city. The organization has completed over a dozen installations featuring the poetry of North Carolina artists. “Salute” is a poem by A. R. Ammons, a noted poet who grew up in rural North Carolina. The wall was designed by Jennifer Garrison and painted by Scott Nurkin of the Mural Shop.
Key Formal Elements:
Ammons published over 30 collections of poetry in his lifetime and much of his work is connected to the Transcendentalist movement and explores themes of idealism, unity, and his belief in the purity of insight. So linger over this short poem and each word as you gaze up at its installation.
Title: “Pure’ll Gold”
Location: N. Davidson St
Artist: Darion Fleming
Date: 2020
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info:@daflemingo
Story: Darion Fleming is a local artist that first starting painting murals around 2017-18 and was part of the inaugural Talking Walls Mural Festival. Fleming is known for his expert control of the spray can and his unmatched ability to create hyperrealism. He has murals in Plaza Midwood, NoDa, Camp North End and in Rock Hill.
Key Formal Elements:
2020 was a trying year. Artists often turn to their work for humor, healing, and connection to humanity and Fleming does all. Completed only a week or so after the state of North Carolina issued the stay-at-home order due to COVID, this mural tells a story. With a quick play on the name of a brand of hand sanitizer, Fleming makes us recall how valuable a small, bottle could be. Like gold. Also, note the words under NEW. He slyly adds “Available Nowhere.”
Fun Fact: Fleming and his mural were featured in the NY Times Art Section highlighting the work of public artists in response to COVID. Pretty cool!
Title: Trader Joe’s mural
Location: 1133 Metropolitan Avenue
Artist: Ivan Roque
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info:@ivanjroque
Story: Miami, Florida based artist Ivan Roque gets the perfect location at the Metropolitan. You can see his mural each time you drive in circles looking for a parking place in this very busy shopping center. The colors, sun, and landscape of South Florida appear often in this artist’s work but here his inspiration is North Carolina.
Key Formal Elements:
A large brown trout with green and orange colors provides the focal point in this image. Found most often in mountain streams and lakes, the brown trout is native to this area. The artist frames the trout with blue iris flowers, another native species to North Carolina.
Location: 1530 Elizabeth Avenue
Artists: Joey Obso, Miss Lotus, Mr. Elbowski
Date: 2018
Media: Acrylic paint
Artists Info: @joeyobso, @misslotus_, @mr.elbowski
Story: On the interior wall of the courtyard facing @thespokeeasyclt, a bicycle shop, Obso created another mural during the Talking Walls festival. The artists and some friends had their lift for one more day and decided to paint one more mural. How cool is that! Obso collaborated with Miss Lotus who did the three colorful lotus blossoms and @mr.elbowski for the letters.
Key Formal Elements:
Here is the lettering style known as simples. The bubble-style letters across the mural say “Be Good, Do Good” which is the slogan for the SpokeEasy. Walk back around the building to compare to “wild style” lettering. Which is easier to read?
Location: 1041 Hawthorne Lane
Artist: John Hairston Jr., Brian Hester
Date: 2020
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info:@john_hairston_jr, @bhester.hookedflycompany
Story: Artist John Hairston, Jr., grew up drawing superheroes, comics, and cartoons. His Instagram name is a combination of his name and Galactus, a Marvel supervillain. Hairston is a professor of illustration at UNCC. Brian Hester likes to paint fish. His passion for fly fishing and nature originates from growing up in the mountains of North Carolina. Hester is a visual arts instructor at a local high school in Charlotte and Hairston was his student. How cool is that collaboration!
Key Formal Elements:
Located on the side wall of the Claiborne Prosthetics and Orthotics building, this mural paints possibility. From mountains to sea, various figures with prosthetics participate in fishing, hiking, golf, and other activities. Clay Clairborne, business owner, says of the mural, “I figured it was time to put something together that was a little more positive.” Thank you, Mr. Claiborne.
Title: “Swift PMP Drifting”
Location: 307 Lincoln Street
Artist: Kiana Mui
Date: 2021
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @kmuiii
Story: This mural is sponsored by Brand the Moth and their META Mural Artists Residency Program. Brand the Moth is a non-profit organization creating community based public art projects and supporting emerging artists with the META residency opportunity. Mui was part of the 2021 META program.
Key Formal Elements:
I learned something new with this one. Drifting. Drifting is a driving technique where a driver looses traction on purpose to slide through a turn sideways. It is a part of contemporary car culture and here the artist celebrates something unique to her and Charlotte. Her character, KMUIII, rides along in the car releasing her inner demons and proudly and confidently drives the car during this difficult and much practiced maneuver. Don’t try that at home…