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MoRA ART TRAIL

MoRA is known as Monroe Road Area, the neighborhoods and businesses along Monroe Road from 7th Street to Pineville-Matthews Road.  MoRA is also Monroe Road Advocates, the all-volunteer organization promoting this welcoming, diverse area of Charlotte.   

For more information check out moraclt.org and @moraclt.  The MoRA Art Trail was part of the Patchwork: East Side Art Trail project and was funded with an ASC Cultural Vision Grant. 

Google Map

Small white house and green envelope with abstract shapes in orange, red, green, black and brown.

Start at 3434 Monroe

Title: “Everywhen”

Location: 3434 Monroe Road

Artist: Sharon Dowell and Christopher Holston

Date: 2021

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @sharon_dowell, @christopher.hoston.art


Story: Find the colorful corner of this building where artists Sharon Dowell and Christopher Holston fill the space with layers of shapes and colors. Dowell is one of the OG mural artists in Charlotte with murals in Camp North End, Uptown, South End and the East Side. Partnering in life and art with Christopher Holston, there is a unique combination of their two styles in this mural. More structural pieces connect a little more to Dowell’s art while the more fluid elements here come from Holston. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Polychromatic color scheme
  • Organic and geometric shapes

Make the Connection:

Have you ever had a unit in a self-storage center? About 10% of the population does and often the need for storage comes from a change or transition in life. Like a move, a marriage, or transfer, and as the artists needed a storage unit when they combined households. They met the owner of this facility while they were carrying in paintings. He asked if they did murals… And next thing you know, the artists were doing a mural.


In this mural, there are connections to the past, present, and future, which are all considerations of transitions and the need for a storage unit. The building was originally Atlantic Envelope so look for the envelope in the mural. Catch the house on the corner wrapping both sides as a reminder that sometimes our structures have to be flexible.  

Portrait of a black person, five birds, and a portrait of a white person on blue background.

Head to 3800 Monroe Rd

Title: "Holding Space"

Location: 3800 Monroe Road

Artist: Bree Stallings

Date: 2021

Media: Acrylic paint 

Artist Info: @breestallingsart


Story:  Bree Stallings is a super-star artist. While she has amazing murals outside of Charlotte in Gastonia, and some at Camp North End, this Monroe Road mural is her first mural included on ArtWalks. Funded with an Arts & Science Council Cultural Vision Grant and a grant from Charlotte is Creative, Stallings worked with the clients at Time Out Youth in three separate workshops to develop imagery for this mural. The mural was painted to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the founding of Time Out Youth, an LGBTQIA resource center. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Notice the highlights on the face of the far-left figure
  • Bilateral symmetry with the portraits at each end


Make the Connection:

So much to take in and consider with each intentional choice by the artist. Note the spread of the rainbow colors of the birds which represents the fluidity of the LGBTQIA community. Each bird has a symbolic meaning in the mural. For example, the yellow chickadee is a symbol of good luck and closely associated with ideas around happiness, positivity, and good fortune. Flowing across the mural in a helix form, the Japanese patterns suggest the inter-connectedness of humanity. As always, the imagery in the murals by Stallings is complex and deep but easy to appreciate just for the beauty of it.

Various images of dogs doing different human activities against a green background and gray roads.

Stop at Social Pet next to AutoBell

Title: Social Pet Mural

Location: 3814 Monroe Road

Artists: Arko and Owl

Date: 2020

Media: Acrylic paint

Artists Info: @arko.clt, @owl.clt


Story: Prominent local artists Arko and Owl embrace the balance of two different artistic styles. Owl’s “blob language” is based in mark making and her undulating lines flow across the wall. Meanwhile the magical, fantasy landscapes and figures produced by Arko tell a story of his make-believe worlds. Together they are richly layered and delight the eye.  When they paint, Arko and Owl wear handmade, intricately detailed masks that relate to their personalities. Each believes that working while masked allows them the freedom to create and prevents gender or ethnicity from affecting their work. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Outline around the dogs
  • Cool colors of purples, blues, and green dominate

Make the Connection:

Here the artists pay homage to the Echo Hills neighborhood and many of the surrounding businesses. Arko grew up in this part of town and his fantasy dog figures each denote an area business. The AutoBell next door, holding a rag and sponge with suds, and one of the several veterinary offices are both represented. See the dog with a stethoscope? Try to guess all the businesses embodied in the mural, and click on the GET HINTS HERE button for hints!

Get Hints here:
Black and white dog surrounded by red and orange poppies with a blue stripe on a gray background.

Across street at 3811 Monroe

Title: Elvis at Blood, Sweat and Tears Tattoo

Location: 3811 Monroe Road 

Artist: Kathryn Crawford

Date: 2020

Media: Spray paint

Artist Info: @kathryncrawfordart


Story: Asheville-based artist Kathryn Crawford completed this mural shortly after she completed her mural for the 2020 Talking Walls festival. Blood, Sweat, and Tears Tattoo owner Dave Scearce searched for years to find the perfect artist for his small project. With no artist committing to the project, he was ready to google “how to paint a mural” and paint it himself. Then Scearce saw a social media post of a cat by Crawford and knew immediately he’d found the perfect artist.


Key Formal Elements:

  • Visual texture of the dog’s fur
  • Strong use of warm colors in the poppies

Make the Connection:

It’s Elvis the dog. Here the business owner’s dog shines brightly among the red and orange poppies. Scearce commissioned the portrait of his dog and requested bright colors but Crawford creatively designed the rest of the composition. If you could commission a muralist to paint your pet, where would it be, and what flowers would you choose?

Portraits of 3 teachers with words Those Who can Teach against colorful, mosaic painted background.

On other side of BST Tattoo

Title: Those Who Can Teach

Location: 3811 Monroe Road 

Artist: Dwayne Wilson

Date: 2023

Media: Spray paint

Artist Info: @dwilsonart


Story:  Charlotte middle school art instructor Dwayne Wilson painted this mural to honor three teachers in the community.  Students helped to paint the mural.  


Key Formal Elements:

  • Highly saturated colors
  • Asymmetrical balance

Make the Connection:

Portraits of three teachers, Jen Rankey, Dorothy Beaman, and Virginia Schacht fill the right side of the mural.  Did you have a favorite teacher ever?  Make a mental note to be thankful for our teachers and wouldn't it be cool if every teacher got a mural!



Two bearded figures, two roses, again an orange and blue tie-dye background.

Head to 3927 Monroe Road

Title: Grateful Dead mural at Cosmic Tattoo

Location: 3927 Monroe Road

Artists: Dustin Spagnola, Lord.melto.ftk

Date: 2020

Media: Aerosol paint

Artists Info: @dustinspagnola, www.dustinspagnola.com @lord.melto.ftk


Story: The owners of this building realized that their exterior wall needed repair work. That meant that the existing Grateful Dead mural would need to be removed. Fortunately, the owners were able to make the repairs and commission new artists to create another Grateful Dead mural on the side of the building. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Symmetrical balance
  • Strong use of outline in each rose


** Image credit Cosmic Tattoos

Make the Connection:

American rock band Grateful Dead was founded in the 1960s during the hippie, counter culture era. The mural depicts lead guitarist Jerry Garcia and band member Brent Mydland in front of a colorful tie-dye background. Asheville-based artist, painter, and muralist Dustin Spagnola did the portraits and @lord.melto.ftk did the background. Are you a Grateful Dead uber fan or “got to google that now” person? 

A blue letterJ, a purple peace symbol, a yellow letter Y and a flower and a face with black doodles

Head to 4201 Monroe Rd

Location: 4201 Monroe Road on the side of Paper Puddle

Title: “Joy”

Artist: Sebastian Coolidge

Date: 2018

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @sebastiancoolidge


Story: The side wall of Paper Puddle is painted by artist Sebastian Coolidge with fun, colorful, letters and shapes. Coolidge is a Florida-based fashion designer, muralist, and illustrator. He painted a mural for the Talking Walls mural festival uptown in 2018 which is now removed and completed this additional mural during his trip to Charlotte. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Polychromatic color scheme
  • Unity provided by the green stem of the flower which starts on one side and flows to the other

Make the Connection:

Coolidge is known for his fun and lively compositions both in murals and clothing. His signature artistic element is the surrealist flower blossom with a face and long petals which you see depicted on the right of the composition. Make sure that you can pick out the letters that spell JOY and engage with this light, expressive, bouncy mural!  


Also check out the augmented reality with this mural.  Search Instagram stories for the artist's name and try the Dazey filter designed by @cheeks.clt and @suarezart.  With your phone in selfie mode see the mural element come to life with you.  Definitely Insta-worthy! 

Two children read book with a dinosaur, a ballerine, spaceship, mountains, and knight around them.

Head to 4300 Monroe

Title: Morris Costumes Mural

Location: 4300 Monroe Road

Artist: Scott Nurkin

Date: 2023 

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @themuralshop


Story: Artist Scott Nurkin of the Mural Shop paints murals all across North Carolina and is especially known for his series of murals on NC musicians. Here Nurkin was commissioned by Read Charlotte, a local public-private partnership devoted to improving reading for kids. He worked with students at Oakhurst STEAM Academy right down the street. Students helped to design the mural while Nurkin executed the final design. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Symmetrical composition
  • Highlights on each boy’s face

Make the Connection:

Two children are lost in time reading their books while elements from favorite books provide inspiration in a semi-circle above them. Were you a reader of classics, or tales of knights and fair maidens? Or maybe you preferred a wilderness journey or a little science fiction. Whatever you remember reading as a child or what you enjoy now, the important thing is that you read.

Two sidewalk murals with colorful portraits, honeycomb shapes, a bee and sunflowers.

Head to Monroe and Chippendale

Title: "Wonder"

Location:  Intersection of Monroe Road and Chippendale

Artists: MyLoan Dinh, Michelle “Bunny” Gregory

Date: 2021 

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @myloandinh, @ugbattleofthehearts


Story:  Patchwork Crosswalks are a series of commissioned artworks completed in Fall 2021. These three crosswalks share stories of area residents and reflect the unique identities of MoRA’s communities. They are inspired by patchwork quilting where individuals gather to share stories and create art together.  


Funded through an Arts & Science Council Cultural Vision Grant and support from the City of Charlotte Neighborhood Matching Grants program, the Patchwork Crosswalks is a partnership between ArtWalks CLT and MoRa and neighborhood sponsors. Artists MyLoan Dinh and Michelle “Bunny” Gregory worked with members of the community in workshops and online community submissions to design the imagery of these murals. Community members helped to paint the murals.


Key Formal Elements:

  • Positive shapes of the figures
  • Symmetrical balance

Make the Connection:

With complex layering and patterns, artists MyLoan Dinh and Bunny Gregory create a mural with a deep connection to place. Located at the corner of the Oakhurst STEAM Academy, artist Dinh says the mural is “inspired by the playful creativity and curiousity of children.” The patterns inside of the figures pay homage to quilting and the textile heritage of the former Hudson Hosiery Mill, now torn down. Bees, honeycomb shapes, and flowers give viewers a  connection to nature. The piano keys in one sunflower were inspired by a child’s submission. Look for other symbols of wonder, science, and learning. 

Red toadstools in a forest setting with bunnies, flowers, a cat having a tea party.

Across the Street at Jean's

Location:  Across street at Jeans's Apothecare

Artist: Melissa "Mo" Wineman

Date: 2023 

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @owlymo


Story:  We love small businesses that support murals!  And this is such a sweet one.  Local artist Melissa Wineman is an energetic supporter of the art community and is often found popping up at various art markets on the weekend to show her signature "wildflower" paintings.  Wineman has several murals in the city and you can find them on our East Side Art Trail and the Threading Through Greenway Trail.


Key Formal Elements:

  • Lots of use of contour lines and outlines 

Make the Connection:

This is our first and maybe only Harry Potter mural!  What may look like a fairy tale landscape setting includes a bunch of Harry Potter characters.  Look for Luna, the golden snitch, the car in the tree, and other fun references to the Potter series.  

Large circular sculpture made of steel and concrete covered in mosaic tiles.

Head to Conference Drive & Monroe Road

Title: “Embrace”

Location: 6697 Monroe Road

Artist: Leslie Scott with Lee Baumgarten

Date: 2017

Media: Stainless steel, ceramic tiles


Story: As East Charlotte began attracting redevelopment, Monroe Road Advocates (MoRA) organized and began to see a vision for their changing community and it included art. This highly visible site across from East Mecklenburg High School and the Independence Regional Library became a civic location once Goode Properties set aside the piece of property for community use. With a Cultural Vision Grant from the Arts & Science Council and private donations, art became its anchor.  Leslie Scott brainstormed in community workshops; at her unexpected passing, artist Lee Baumgarten stepped in to complete this large-scale sculpture. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Free-standing sculpture
  • Texture of each individual tile


** Photo credit: Leigh Black

Make the Connection:

This stunning sculpture interacts with and engages the community. From walking under and through and finding your reflection in the piece to reading the special messages in each individual tile, this piece wants you to be involved and invites you to be a part of the space. The stainless-steel components harken to the famous “Bean” on Chicago’s waterfront, but the ceramics add warmth and community. What’s your favorite tile?  

Sidewalk mural with figures nestled in a flowing ribbon with hearts on it.

On sidewalks at intersection

Title: "LovN On Each Other"

Location:  Intersection of Monroe Road and Conference Drive

Artists: MyLoan Dinh, Michelle “Bunny” Gregory

Date: 2021 

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @myloandinh, @ugbattleofthehearts


Story:  Patchwork Crosswalks are a series of commissioned artworks completed in Fall 2021. These three crosswalks share stories of area residents and reflect the unique identities of MoRA’s communities. They are inspired by patchwork quilting where individuals gather to share stories and create art together.  


Funded through an Arts & Science Council Cultural Vision Grant and support from the City of Charlotte Neighborhood Matching Grants program, the Patchwork Crosswalks is a partnership between ArtWalks CLT and MoRa and neighborhood sponsors. Artists MyLoan Dinh and Michelle “Bunny” Gregory worked with members of the community in workshops and online community submissions to design the imagery of these murals. Community members helped to paint the murals.


Key Formal Elements:

  • Use of grey scale on the portraits
  • Implied motion

Make the Connection:

In one swirling flow of hearts and squares, artists MyLoan Dinh and Bunny Gregory create a warm and loving embrace on the sidewalk. In a connection to the iconic “Embrace” sculpture at the same corner, this sidewalk mural reminds us of that physical connection of touch. Several of the portraits on the mural were included in community submissions for the art and individual squares created by community painters. 


For any art history nerds out there (us), think Gustave Klimt and his famous flowing patterns and get lost in the blanket of color and shapes.  

Superhero in blue, masked nurse in turquoise, purple superhero against a white toilet paper roll.

On side street behind library

Title: Street Mural

Location: 6900 Wallace Lane

Artist: Carla Garrison-Mattos

Date: 2020

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @paintingsandthings


Story: The City of Charlotte loves murals. Its Urban Design Center and the Office of Sustainability supported local artists and filled Charlotte’s streets with murals during the summer of COVID. Artists from the city’s Placemaking Artist Pool installed street murals that captured the impact of COVID and the resiliency and sustainability of our city. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Outline and contour lines on the figures
  • Roll of toilet paper provides unity


** Photo credit: Carla Garrison-Mattos

Make the Connection:

Local artist Carla Garrison-Mattos gives us the superheroes of the pandemic during 2020. Against the back drop of the unfurling roll of toilet paper (I can’t believe I just wrote that about art), two larger than life healthcare workers and Queen Charlotte herself take on and fight the green-spiked virus on the right. Garrison-Mattos was inspired by a friend of hers who is a nurse.  She dedicated this mural to all of the essential workers fighting for us during COVID-19. Who’s your COVID hero? 

Two sidewalk murals with quilt patterns, trees, hears, and people enjoying themselves in nature.

Head to Monroe and Galleria

Title: "Gather"

Location:  Intersection of Monroe Road and Galleria Blvd.

Artists: MyLoan Dinh, Michelle “Bunny” Gregory

Date: 2021 

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @myloandinh, @ugbattleofthehearts


Story:  Patchwork Crosswalks are a series of commissioned artworks completed in Fall 2021. These three crosswalks share stories of area residents and reflect the unique identities of MoRA’s communities. They are inspired by patchwork quilting where individuals gather to share stories and create art together.  


Funded through an Arts & Science Council Cultural Vision Grant and support from the City of Charlotte Neighborhood Matching Grants program, the Patchwork Crosswalks is a partnership between ArtWalks CLT and MoRa and neighborhood sponsors. Artists MyLoan Dinh and Michelle “Bunny” Gregory worked with members of the community in workshops and online community submissions to design the imagery of these murals. Community members helped to paint the murals.


Key Formal Elements:

  • Geometric shapes of the quilt patterns
  • Warm colors of the heart focal point

Make the Connection:

Lead artist Bunny Gregory uses geometric patterns of quilts combined with images of community activities to remind us of the importance of having gathering places. Look for gathering in nature and notice the tree roots and leaves framing the sidewalks. Find images of helping others, games, pets, and other reminders of how we connect. Even pizza! Quilts tell stories and here they tell us to be community!

Would you like to see more art on the East Side?

Our East Side collection of murals, public art, and street art can be seen on two different Art Trails. If you would like to know more, check out the East Side Art Trail.  The East Side Art Trail explores Eastway Shopping Center art and Central Avenue. Check it out in the link below.  

Keep exploring

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