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Welcome to NoDa

Starting at the iconic "Bloom" which signals your entry into historic NoDa, this artwalk takes you literally around the block.  Murals, street paintings, yarn bombings, and trash receptacle art are included on this walk.  Stay on the sidewalk and tag @artwalksclt and the artist with your photos. 


PARKING: Available on surrounding side streets, paid parking at select lots and 36th St deck

TRANSIT:  Short walk from 36th Street light rail station 

Google Map of all ArtWalks Sites in NoDa

Start at the corner of N. Davidson & 35th Street

Title: "Bloom"

Location: 3200 N. Davidson Street side wall

Artist:  Osiris Rain

Date: 2017/2022

Media: Spray paint

Artist Info: @osirisrain


Story: A tale of two “Blooms.” So, a long time ago in the Historic Arts District of NoDa, Osiris Rain painted a mural. Really it was 2017. But it was an icon for the neighborhood with a bright yellow and orange composition with signature black and white scale Osiris Rain portraits and a central lotus blossom. In 2022, a painting contractor mistakenly painting over the mural. Community members were outraged but thankfully Rain was commissioned by paint a NEW mural. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Focal point of the pink lotus blossom
  • Symmetrical balance with the two portraits on each end

Make the Connection:

In the updated version of “Bloom,” Rain keeps the central focus on the lotus flower. Symbolic of rebirth, the lotus flower now has several potential meanings in the mural. Note the inclusion of the lotus bud to the left and the lotus seed pod on the right. Also, while the former mural spelled out CHARLOTTE in the background, can you find the new words in the background?

Look at the corner for the trash receptacle

Location: At the corner of 35th Street and N. Davidson Street

Artist: Grace Stott

Date: 2020 

Media: Ceramics 

Artist Info: @gracestottt


Story: NoDaRioty, the arts committee for the Historic North Charlotte Neighborhood Association, partnered with the City of Charlotte and the Neighborhood Matching Grants Program to commission artists to design existing trash receptacles. A call to artists was sent out and eight artists were chosen to produce their designs.  Ceramic artist Grace Stott has a mosaic mural on our South End Tremont ArtWalk.


Key Formal Elements:

  • Free-standing sculptures
  • Texture

Make the Connection:

Eight artists and eight different designs.


Artist Grace Stott places ceramic faces on three sides of the receptacle and adds lots of colorful neighborhood connections on the fourth side. Be on the lookout and see if you can find all eight in the business district.  


Also consider doing the Trash Receptacle ArtWalk to learn about all 8 commissions and some facts on art and trash.

Look down at the pavement

Location: 3204 N. Davidson Street Center of the Earth medallion and benches in 3200 block

Artists: Ruth Ava Lyons and Paul Sires

Date: 1980s

Media: Mosaic tile embedded in concrete

Artist Info: @ruthavalyonsart, www.jpaulsires.com


Story: Ruth Ava Lyons and Paul Sires are artist legends in Charlotte. The artists found studio space in the NoDa area in the early 1980s, invested in properties, and started the artistic renaissance of the area. Their gallery was called Center of the Earth Gallery and located in this shopfront. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Symmetrical balance

Make the Connection:

The artists also completed the mosaics on the benches in front of the shopfront. Both artists use a great deal of natural forms in their work. Lyons works mostly in two-dimensional mixed media paintings. Sires works as a sculptor mostly in marble and granite. 

Look down at the street

Location: Loading zone in the 3200 block of N. Davidson Street

Artist: Osiris Rain

Date: 2018

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @osirisrain


Story: This project was a partnership between the Charlotte Department of Transportation and Sustain Charlotte for the OpenStreets704 biking celebration in Spring 2018. CDOT removed the parking lanes to create a loading zone and to ease congestion in front of the fire department. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Repetition of patterns
  • Warm, secondary color of orange forms the main area of the flower


Make the Connection:

During the OpenStreets704 festival, the artist provided stencils so that members of the community were able to contribute to painting the flowers and be a part of this community art project.

Continue on N. Davidson

Title: "Chanson of Papillon"

Location: 3220 N. Davidson Street

Artist: Osiris Rain

Date: 2021

Media: Spray paint

Artist Info: @osirisrain


Story: Osiris Rain continues to thrill the viewer with his experimentation and almost improvisational riffs on color and the figure. Rain is a classically trained artist and fluent with realistic figures in the traditional medium of oil, but it is stunning to see how he manipulates the geometric prism shapes, a butterfly, hands and faces into this mural on the side of Billy Jack’s Shack.


Key Formal Elements:

  • Strong contrast of warm and cool colors
  • Symmetrical and almost a radial balance

Make the Connection:

While the butterfly wings shape anchors the composition, colorful violas and pansies are the flower of choice for the artist. Hidden in the colors are two faces and hands. Can you find them? Then think about how the artist’s use of the portraits has evolved from the “Bloom” mural. 

Look at corner of N. Davidson & 36th Street

Location: Corner of N. Davidson & 36th Street

Artists: Jason Lee Parker

Date: 2020 

Media: Acrylic paint 

Artist Info: @tinker_bird_ 


Story: NoDaRioty, the arts committee for the Historic North Charlotte Neighborhood Association, partnered with the City of Charlotte and the Neighborhood Matching Grants Program to commission artists to design existing trash receptacles. A call to artists was sent out and eight artists were chosen to produce their designs. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Cool colors of the background
  • Contour lines on the hands

Make the Connection:

Eight artists and eight different designs. 


Tinker Bird placed the letters N-O-D-A in both English and American Sign Language on his trash receptacle.  Self-described tinkerer, artist, and carpenter, he draws his influences from street art, skate culture and his time in a band.  His message is meant to “celebrate diversity and inclusiveness.”  

Turn right and walk to Smelly Cat

Location: 514 E. 36th Street sculpture out front of Smelly Cat Coffee

Artist: Theron Ross

Date: 2011

Media: Metal

Artist Info: @theronross


Story: Playful sculpture in front of Smelly Cat Coffee House draws attention to the business and it is a bike rack that acts as a functional element of the streetscape. This project was a collaboration between NoDaRioty, the arts committee of the Historic North Charlotte Neighborhood Association and the Neighborhood Energy Challenge Grant. “Pimp my Rack” allowed Ross, a metal-worker and blacksmith, an opportunity to create six artistic bicycle rack designs. Five are still located in the neighborhood.


Key Formal Elements:

  • Three-dimensional, free-standing sculpture
  • Clever use of negative space

Make the Connection:

The sculpture was recently yarn bombed by fiber artist Jessica Allen @desertroseknittco. Yarn bombing is a type of graffiti or street art that uses colorful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fiber arts. Be on the lookout for other items that have been yarn bombed in NoDa.

At the Corner of Yadkin and 36th

Location: Corner of Yadkin & 36th Street

Artist: Pam Imhof

Date: 2020 

Media: Acrylic paint 

Artist Info: @theleftbrainedartist

Story: NoDaRioty, the arts committee for the Historic North Charlotte Neighborhood Association, partnered with the City of Charlotte and the Neighborhood Matching Grants Program to commission artists to design existing trash receptacles. A call to artists was sent out and eight artists were chosen to produce their designs. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Actual texture 
  • Functional art

Make the Connection:

Eight artists and eight different designs. 


Four sides of playful animals such as a salamander, a penguin, a giraffe, and a racoon entertain the viewer. Right before this project, Imhof painted a crosswalk in Plaza-Midwood and hopes to do more public art in Charlotte.  Imhof is a local art instructor, muralist, and fiber artist. 

Walk half block to Company Store

Location: 3221 Yadkin Avenue walls of the NODA Company Store

Artists: Matt Hooker, Matt Moore

Date: 2016

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @hookermedia, @puckmcgruff


Story: Artists Matt Hooker and Matt Moore researched the history of the North Davidson Street area for inspiration. NoDa has transitioned from rolling farmland during the American Revolution, to a major textile center during the 20th century, to one of Charlotte’s art and entertainment centers today.  


Key Formal Elements:

  • Entire mural rendered in grey-scale tones
  • Variety created through the contrast of light and dark

Make the Connection:

The history of NoDa plays a starring role in these murals. Starting on the front wall, the artists draw connections to farming, and include a portrait of American Revolution leader General William Lee Davidson. Around the corner, can you locate the reference to the Highland Manufacturing Co. Mill No. 3 which opened in 1903. The mill produced mostly gingham fabric. Can you find where the artists included gingham? There are also humorous references to the criminal element that oral histories tell us existed in NoDa over the course of its history.

Peek down alley

Location: End of alley along side wall of NoDa Company Store

Artist: Osiris Rain

Date: 2017

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @osirisrain


Story:  This piece of art transforms a concrete block wall that houses garbage behind this business. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Highlights located on the eyelids, forehead, and chin
  • Geometric patterns create contrast with organic lines of figure

Make the Connection:

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.

Walk to corner of 35th and Yadkin

Location: Corner of 35th Street and Yadkin 

Artist: Luvly Moon

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info:@luvlymoon


Story:  Local artist Luvly Moon knew she wanted to be a professional artist at the age of 16. Influences for her art include street art, healing energy, and the desire to create uplifting messages. A member of the Tough Ass Crew artist collective and a META Artist Residency program participant, her art is colorful and fun.


Key Formal Elements:

  • Use of outline on all four sides
  • Lots of cool colors but some warm colors on the sides with the yellow stars and pink background.

Make the Connection:

Eight artists and eight different designs. 


Connections to Charlotte are included by the artist in the colors of teal and purple and if you look closely, the cute characters are wearing crowns. The artist calls these figures “space beans” and they are characters that travel the cosmos looking for the answers to life’s questions and inspiration. Sounds like all of us. 

Look at the street

Location: 516 E. 35thStreet

Artist: Ruth Ava Lyons 

Date: 2020

Media: Acrylic paint 

Artist Info: @ruthavalyonsart 


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 the impact of COVID – 19 and the resiliency and sustainability of our city. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Asymmetrical balance
  • Focal point of the black dandelion

Make the Connection:

According to Lyons, “the dandelion symbolizes our ability and determination to proliferate in the most difficult circumstances and places.” As an artist, Lyons draws much of her inspiration from nature and in this case from a lowly weed. A weed that never gives up, shows up in all the wrong places, demands attention and then becomes an ethereal seed to grow somewhere else. A beautiful lesson for our times. 

Look at side wall of 510 Expert Tattoos

Location: 510 E. 35th Street wall at 510 Expert Tattoos

Artist: Tom Michael

Date: 

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @uglytom


Story: Large eagle with fully spread wings covers half of a side wall of the tattoo studio. Blue and white fluffy clouds fill in the rest of the areas.


Key Formal Elements:

  • Implied motion of the bird in flight
  • Asymmetrical balance with the focal point behind the eagle at the point where the red sunbursts begin

Make the Connection:

The eagle can be symbolic of many things in art. Going back to the founding of the United States, the eagle can be a symbol of power, courage, independence, and freedom. How does the choice of subject matter for this mural relate to the business?

"Worth the Walk" One Block to left on N. Davidson

Title: Oh My Soul mural

Location: 3046 N. Davidson Street

Artists: Sydney Duarte, Ann Duarte, Duarte Designs

Date: 2021

Media: Acrylic paint 

Artists Info: @traveling_gypsy, @duarte_designs


Story:  Oh My Soul is NoDa’s first vegan restaurant and art is featured on the sidewalks and almost every wall around the building. Mother and daughter artist team, Duarte Designs, completed a wall mural along the side of the building and another mural inside the courtyard which you can peek at from the street. Duarte Designs has murals on our Plaza Midwood and Mad About Murals artwalks.


Key Formal Elements:

  • Black and white value scale used on the animals
  • Visual texture of the coats of each animal

Make the Connection

Veganism seeks to promote a way of life and living philosophy that excludes all forms of cruelty or exploitation to animals. So, celebrate the chicken, the lamb, the pig and the cow rendered in the same scale as the solid human profile. Duarte Designs always brings the viewer those messages of positivity and reflection! 

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