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Start at the corner of 7th & Rail Trail
Title: “The Writer’s Desk”
Location: 300 East 7th Street
Artist: Larry Kirkland
Date: 2006
Media: Granite, marble
Artist Info: www.larrykirkland.com
Story: When Charlotte Observer publisher Rolfe Neill retired in 1997 after a distinguished career in journalism, a community group raised funds for a public art piece to tell the story of his career, commitment to civic responsibility, and writings. Washington, DC based artist Larry Kirkland creates large scale public art installations all over the world. “The Writer’s Desk” won the Public Art Network’s Best New Public Artwork award when it was completed.
Key Formal Elements:
- Freestanding installation
- Explore the different textures
Make the Connection:
Books. Reading. Writing. Kirkland nails it. In a deeply thoughtful installation, Kirkland manages to bring the important and serious ideals of a much beloved writer and patron of the arts to a playful and interactive outdoor space. The stack of books, typewriter keys – Neill was a manual typewriter journalist, the quill, and the quotes all point to Neill’s influential career. But at the same time these elements provide a fun, engaging space for performances, sitting, and the telling of new stories. Sit a while and read some of the quotes. What stories do you think they are trying to tell?
Walk along the front of Imaginon to Brevard & 7th
Title: Wall Poem
Location: 328 N. Brevard Street
Artist: Wall Poems of Charlotte, Scott Nurkin, The Mural Shop
Date: 2015
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info:@wallpoems, design by @cffrank, @themuralshop
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 work of North Carolina poets. “Bus Stop” is a poem by Donald Justice, a Pulitzer Prize winning poet and educator who studied at the University of North Carolina. This installation was funded by the Knight Foundation with support from the building’s owner, Levine Properties. The Treolar House, as the building is known, is a rare residential building in uptown Charlotte. It was built in 1887 by a prominent business man who came to the area from England to work in gold mining.
Key Formal Elements:
- Installation
- Repetition of key phrases of the poem on three walls of the building
Make the Connection:
Much of the writing by Justice centers around memory or reimagining the past in some way to create a story. In beautiful language the poem invites the reader to linger for a moment. Imagine those “black flowers.” Engaging with this building, one of the few remaining historic structures in uptown Charlotte, encourages the viewer to both slow down, and to anticipate the future a block away at the light rail stop. If the poet was painter, he would be Edward Hopper.
Follow path in park to 8th and Rail Trail
Location: 8th Street and Rail Trail
Title: "Chandler the Chair Monster"
Artist: David Furman
Date: 2023
Media: Wooden chairs with steel support
Artist Info: @centrocityworks
Story: When art pops up on the Rail Trail, you can bet David Furman has something to do with it. Furman is an artist and architect who led a lot of the placemaking efforts along the Rail Trail in its early development. Many of his fun, quirky, installations are included in the South End area and this is his first in the Uptown area. This sculpture was sponsored by US Bank and brings a sense of play and whimsy to this corner of First Ward Park.
Key Formal Elements:
- Highly saturated yellow
- Repetition of chairs
Make the Connection:
When David Furman got a phone call about a warehouse full of old chairs, he said yes! For a while all of these chairs sat in his studio and he pondered what to do with them. As he studied their forms and played around with them sculpturally, he came up with the idea of making a monster out of them. Almost like the Loch Ness Monster.
The bright yellow color suggests a sense of play and fun in an urban environment which is largely gray steel and concrete. How else does the sculpture contrast with its urban setting?
Take Rail Trail to 9th, walk to Tryon, walk to 10th
Location: 701 N. Tryon Street
Title: "Delight in Dancing"
Artist: Pichiavo
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @pichiavo
Story: Two Spanish artists form the internationally known group Pichiavo. Their first mural in Charlotte is a commission for Charlotte Shout. The artists are known for their unique combination of classical art and contemporary urban street art. This Classical Greek goddess of dance Terpsichore comes complete with wet-drapery style clothing and a lyre (a musical instrument) in a contrapposto pose.
Key Formal Elements:
- Contour lines of the drapery
- Variety of the graffiti colors
Make the Connection:
The artists have a distinct working style. First, a solid layer of color is applied as a base coat. On the large wall, the base color is blue. On the smaller perpendicular wall, the base color is pink. Next, splotches of additional colors are added, upon which the graffiti is painted. Site-specific simples, or bubble-style lettering, are added for this mural. Find some words that relate to this site. With the wall completely covered in graffiti, the artists then begin a delicate white washing of the form of the figure and add details that give the figure volume.
Walk to Tryon, turn left, stop at McColl Center
Location: 801 N. Tryon Street
Artist: Nick Napoletano
Date: 2017
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @napoletanoart
Story: Funded with a Cultural Vision Grant from the Arts & Science Council which stressed building community and with financial support from AerialCLT business owners, the artist presents portraits of real women. This group of women is racially diverse and LGBTQ inclusive. The artist found his models with the help of Time Out Youth, a local organization that provides a safe space for youth and support for LGBTQ.
Key Formal Elements:
- Scale
- Complementary colors of blue/orange simplify the background
Make the Connection:
Napoletano illustrates humanity in his hyper-realist portraits. The simple background of limited colors allows you to focus on the exceptional details in the portraits. Notice the modeling or shading of each of the faces. Find the highlights on each one and then begin to appreciate the many different shades of color represented in each face.
Cross Tryon at light, walk along 11th
Location: 100 E. 11th Street
Title: "Ego"
Artist: Ledania
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @ledania
Story: Internationally known mural artist Ledania is from Bogota, Colombia. She completed this mural for Talking Walls 2019. Her main themes of positivity, happiness, equality, love and self-expression are executed through vibrant colors and shapes.
Key Formal Elements:
- Polychromatic colors inside the letters
- Implied motion
Make the Connection:
Ledania gives you a self-help mural. Largely based on her own personal experience in Charlotte waiting on a wall to paint, she felt her ego getting in the way.
What is pulling you down with your EGO? What can you do to cut those strings that prevent you from letting go of your EGO? As your self-help muralist, the artist wants you to let go of your ego and feel freedom. Have a good day!
Walk along 11th to corner
Location: 100 E. 11th Street
Artist: Matt Hooker and Matt Moore
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @hookermedia and @puckmcgruff
Story: As legendary figures in Charlotte’s mural arts scene, Matt Hooker and Matt Moore have important murals all over the city and this is their mural for TalkingWalls. Their work is featured in our Mad About Murals artwalks, and our artwalks in Plaza Midwood, NoDa, South End and Uptown. Stylistically, their work does not easily fit into one brand as you can sometimes say about other mural artists. Their work is highly adaptable to site, their personalities, and message.
Key Formal Elements:
- Scale. Just consider scale for a moment
- Complements of yellow and purple create drama
Make the Connection:
So much is going on here. Based on a photograph of @alifeofclarity by @angelica.lobiondo, this portrait done in a black and white value scale celebrates strong women. The insertion of wolf eyes gives the portrait a fierce edge. Read the accompanying text on the mural and think about the message.
Continue to 9th, cross College, go to back wall
Title: "Equity"
Location: 618 N. College Street
Artist: Nick Napoletano
Date: 2018
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @napoletanoart
Story: In this super-scaled mural completed for the initial Talking Walls mural festival, Nick Napoletano features a female mural painter carrying her can of paint and a roller. The figure overlaps blue and pink painted dots arranged in a pattern similar to the Ishihara Color Blindness eye test. In the far-right corner, a man in a gray suit uses grey paint to cover up the mural.
Key Formal Elements:
- Scale
- Symmetrical balance
Make the Connection:
Napoletano’s mural is dripping with symbolism and message. As an avid supporter of women’s empowerment, the artist gives us a larger-than-life size woman artist as the heroine of this mural. How does seeing the woman artist impact your understanding of the word “Equity” written in the color-blind test dots? What do you think of the actions of the gray-suited man in the bottom right?