Community Mural: Find the Gold Miner
Location: 307 Lincoln Street in the Gold District in South End
Artist: E.C Laney
Date: 2015
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @upawall
Story: This mural is a great starting place for the Gold Mining ArtWalk. The Gold District, named after the discovery of gold and the operation of gold mines in the area, is a small section of South End with general boundaries of Morehead, Summit, Church and Graham Streets. The Gold District is undergoing a revitalization with support from business owners and the city. Art is playing a role in its redevelopment and this mural is one of the first pieces commissioned in the district. Pro Tip: Catch the mural at twilight or evening and see the elements that light up!
Key Formal Elements:
- Polychromatic color scheme
- Large flat areas of color limit the illusion of depth
Make the Connection:
Signature buildings and South End neighborhood icons are positioned in front of the Charlotte skyline profile and draw your eye around the mural. Take a short visual tour of the neighborhood by locating some of these icons. Does every cool neighborhood have a water tower? Queen Charlotte hoisting craft beer in imitation of the pose of a well-known airport sculpture is a nod to our history and to the present craft breweries. The transformative light rail train creates diagonal movement of progress through old neighborhoods like Wilmore.
Mural: Thomas Edison & Gold?
Location: 307 Lincoln Street in the Riva Finoli Passage in the Gold District
Artist: Lo’Vonia Parks
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @lovoniaparks
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. Lo’Vonia Parks is an artist from their inaugural residency program. Parks is a graduate of the Savannah College of Art & Design and makes the transition from a caricature and illustration career into her first mural.
Key Formal Elements:
- Strong use of contour line and outline in the face
- Implied line of the light bulb and his line of sight
Make the Connection:
Meet Thomas Edison. The artist portrays Edison who came to Charlotte in 1890 after the discovery of gold. It was thought that gold may be mined through the use of electricity. While Edison did not end up using his invention for gold mining, he did work with the developers of Dilworth to create Charlotte’s first electric streetcar. What symbols of the streetcar can you find in the mural? What symbols tell of the connection to gold mining?
Mural: A Call to Action
Location: 307 Lincoln Street in the Rova Finoli Passage in the Gold District
Artist: Franklin Kearnes
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @fk.creative
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. Franklin Kearnes is an artist from their inaugural residency program. Kearnes explores mark making in his abstract studio work and continues his trademark symbols here in his first mural.
Key Formal Elements:
- Strong use of outline
- Repetition of figures creates rhythm
Make the Connection:
The quote “Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people.” is by Marcus Garvey. Garvey was a civil rights leader and political activist for Black Nationalism. Artists often use their art as a call to action. Reading the quote and considering the image of three faceless people of color struggling under the weight of a large gold nugget, what do you think the message of the artwork is? Could the gold nugget be a metaphor for something else?
Wilmore Gold Mine: Check out these Facts
Location: 1501 S. Mint Street in Wilmore
Artist: Tim Parati
Date: 2018
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @timparati
Story: Artist Tim Parati creates two fun murals on the exterior walls of the former Max & Lola Bodega. Both reference the mining history of the Gold District. In 1799, gold was discovered in this area. By the 1830s, the Rudisill Gold Mine was operated by an Italian Count. At its peak in 1891, the Gold Rush in Charlotte included over 60 operating mines and over $2.6 million in mined gold.
Key Formal Elements:
- Linear perspective of the train tracks
- Notice the change in scale of the supports which reinforces the vanishing point
Make the Connection:
Imagine working in the mines. The artist uses strong linear perspective to create the sense of descending down, way down into the tunnels where the gold was found. It is said that there are still tunnels running underneath the streets of the Gold District. To the left of the primary mural is a playful mural with dogs in the mining car.
Carson Boulevard Station Art: Find the Gold
Location: Carson Boulevard Light Rail Station
Artists: Shawn Cassidy, Leticia Huerta
Date: 2007
Media: Steel and aluminum, acrylic, tile, pavers
Artist Info: www.leticiahuerta.com
Shawn Cassidy, a professor of art at Winthrop University, designed the leaf patterns for the station track fencing. Artist Leticia Huerta designed the windscreens, column mosaics, and the paving pattern on the platform.
Key Formal Elements:
- Organic shape of the leaf contrasts with the strict geometry of the fence and tracks
- Repetition of patterns in the mosaics and windscreens
Make the Connection:
Huerta draws upon the history of this area for her integrated station art. The Carson station is close to the Gold District of South End, named after the discovery of gold and the operation of gold mines in the area during the 1800s. Within the theme of gold mining, look for the small “gold nuggets” on the platform and the gold color on the column mosaics. The process of gold mining is her subject matter on the wind screens. Can you spot the water, as well as the reference to panning for gold?
Sculptures on the Square: Gold to Mint
Location: Intersection of Trade Street and Tryon Street in Uptown
Artist: Raymond Kaskey
Date: 1994
Media: Bronze
Artist Info: www.kaskeystudio.com
Story: Funded by private community group Queens Table, the “Sculptures on the Square” mark the trading post where Charlotte’s first buildings were erected in the mid-1700s. This crossing of two Native American trading paths marks the center of uptown and is the highest geographical point of the surrounding area.
Key Formal Elements:
- Freestanding sculptures require the viewer to be engaged
- Scale - contributes to the viewer experience because the sculptures are both larger than life and raised even higher on a pedestal.
Make the Connection:
The sculptures draw your attention to several factors that influenced Charlotte’s growth. Check out the plaque in the ground on the northeast corner for more information. The title of each 5000 pound sculpture is at eye level when you face the buildings.
"Commerce" features our hard working gold miner. Which other artwork showed a gold miner panning for gold?
Charlotte opened a branch of the U.S Mint in 1837 and began to mint coins. In 1927, a branch of the Federal Reserve opened and that building eventually became the Mint Museum.
Mural: Find the Gold Miner
Location: 105 East 5th Street in Uptown
Artists: Matt Hooker, Matt Moore
Date: 2015
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @hookermedia, @puckmcgruff
Story: In one of the first murals completed by the dynamic duo of Matt Hooker and Matt Moore, this mural explodes with pictorial imagery related to the city of Charlotte.
Key Formal Elements:
- Focal point on the far right with a bright yellow explosion
- Asymmetrical balance
Make the Connection:
This mural is full of symbols of Charlotte. For example, the crown surrounding the bright yellow explosion represents the city of Charlotte’s namesake Queen Charlotte. Can you find one symbol from Charlotte’s past and one from Charlotte’s present?
By now you should be able to identify the traditional tools of a gold miner. What are they?