Start at Jack Beagles
Title: "Als ich Chan: A Tribute to NoDa"
Location: 3205 N. Davidson Street on side wall of Jack Beagle’s
Artist: William Puckett
Date: 2010
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @mr_puckett
Story: This is a fantastic starting place for a walk in NoDa. One of the original NoDa art projects, William Puckett put out a call for volunteers to be included in this mural. 274 community members showed up and each one is included in the mural. Puckett is one of the first mural artists to produce substantial work in Charlotte. He estimates his murals cover over 30,000 square feet of Charlotte walls. Puckett recently moved to Scotland to purse his doctorate.
Key Formal Elements:
- Heavy use of outline around the figures
- Little negative space meaning the area is almost entirely covered with figures
Make the Connection:
The title of this artwork, “Als Ich Chan: A Tribute to NoDa” is a nod to Puckett’s interest in art history. “Als Ich Chan” is from an inscription on a painting by Flemish Renaissance painter Jan Van Eyck. It translates to “As Best I Can.” Puckett received no commission for this work, working on it for 18 months before finishing. It covers roughly 1200 square feet. Wait. Is that a water tower?
Look for Trash Receptacle Art
Location: On N. Davidson Street
Artist: Brenda Pokorny
Date: 2020
Media: Ceramic tile and glass
Artist Info: @bapokorny
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 blues and purples
- Functional art
Make the Connection:
Eight artists and eight different designs.
With a nod to the spiritual, Brenda Pokorny creates beautiful mosaic mandalas on her trash can along this street.
Find all eight in the business district by taking the NoDa Trash Can ArtWalk.
Continue on N. Davidson Street
Location: 3215 N. Davidson Street front wall of Stu’s Barrell Shop
Artist:
Date:
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info:
Story: Salvador Deli is the former business located in this building and the original commissioner of the mural. The name of the deli was a play on the name of famous Surrealist artist Salvador Dali. You can find the face of Dali, with his signature handlebar mustache, incorporated into each of the wine bottles on the upper part of the wall.
Key Formal Elements:
- Symmetrical balance created by the placement of elephants
- Warm colors of yellow, orange and red form the background
Make the Connection:
This mural is an appropriation of one of the more well-known Dali paintings. Dali challenges the usual view of elephants as symbols of strength and stability by giving them thin, spindly legs. This encourages the viewer to question our assumptions and enjoy the playful and illogical schemes of the Surrealist artists.
Next building
Title: “Watering Hole”
Location: 3221 N. Davidson Street
Artist: Matt Moore
Date: 2020
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @puckmcgruff
Story: Muralist legend Matt Moore worked for weeks in NoDa on this large commission for the new Bargarita restaurant. With a stage set for a muralist on display, Moore painted and interacted with passerbys. The love was real and NoDa adores its artists. With a change in ownership from the former Solstice Tavern, three existing murals were removed at this site and this new mural added to the site.
Key Formal Elements:
- Visual texture
- Polychromatic color scheme
Make the Connection:
Diversity. Unity. The message is simple and powerful. From the artist, “no matter where you’re from, or what you look like, or what you do…we all require the same bare necessities and collectively are one beating heart.”
Which figure are you? Which figure do you want to be? And remember to celebrate all of us!
Stop in front of TAC Gallery
Location: N. Davidson Street at TAC Gallery
Artist: Poet Was Taken
Date: 2020
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @poetwastaken
Story: Los Angeles-based street artist Poet Was Taken combines stencils, paste ups, and text to create a type of guerilla lovefare. All in the color PINK. NoDa just had a @poetwastaken take over and three pieces were created in the central business area and one new mural was created at CanJam across the railroad tracks.
Key Formal Elements:
- Limited palette
- Installation
Make the Connection:
This installation by the artist uses the front façade of the TAC Gallery even incorporating the small floral rosette medallions in the text. Each street art installation by this artist has some sort of text written as love poetry. The text celebrates love or a message of love in some way.
Continue walking on 36th Street, cross tracks
Title: “Self Love”
Location: 416 E. 36th Street
Artist: Abel Jackson with assistance from Big Trouble Studios
Date: 2020
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @artbyabel
Story: Local arts organization ArtPop Street Gallery worked with SalesForce to commission this large-scale mural (24 feet by 80 feet). Abel Jackson executed a captivating mural in his largest scale mural yet. Jackson has several other murals across the city including one on the Mad About Murals artwalk in uptown.
Key Formal Elements:
- Symmetrical balance
- Highlights on each of the faces
Make the Connection:
Jackson paints three super realistic portraits against a gray geometric background with the words Hear, Imagine, Be, and Love. His positive messaging and portraits inspired by his friends and family bring hope and kindness to our community. Which figure do you feel most like today or most days?
Pro Tip: Make sure that you walk up the stairs to really appreciation the true scale of this mural.
At end of building
Location: 416 E. 36th Street
Artist: Brett Toukatly and Mike Wirth
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @B_twokat, @mikewith
Story: Brett Toukatly and Mike Wirth collaborated on this massive mural on the side of Wooden Robot’s The Chamber. Toukatly, an illustrator and muralist, was the winner of the inaugural Battle Walls competition in 2019. He was also a featured artist in the Mint Museum’s ConstellationCLT exhibit in Fall 2019. Wirth, founding member of both the Southern Tiger Collective and the Talking Walls Mural Festival, incorporates his signature flow fields.
Key Formal Elements:
- Symmetrical balance
- Heavy use of outline
Make the Connection:
What’s in a name? Breweries often have fun names and Wooden Robot does not disappoint. With the opposition of tradition and innovation in the wood and robot combination, the name reminds us to keep both present in our lives and to attempt the impossible sometimes. I mean, can you build a robot out of wood?
Toukatly’s powerful, slightly menacing robots contrast with the fun, colorful patterns and shapes of the flow fields.
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"Worth the Walk" under the light rail to Can Jam
Title: Can Jam CLT
Location: 3224 Benard Ave at Unorthodox Studios
Artists: Varies Each Year
Date: 2016 - 2020
Media: Acrylic paint
Event Info: @canjamclt
Story: Can Jam CLT is a street art experience. Started in 2016 by local artist Osiris Rain, Can Jam CLT brings local artists together to paint an entire wall of a building. It is an invitational event, meaning artists are selected and curated by the organizer each year. Its goal is to connect the street art community, celebrate the artists and street art family, and increase awareness about street art in the community.
Key Formal Elements:
- Scale
- Variety
Make the Connection:
The back wall of the Unorthodox Studio building facing NoDa proper is divided off and each artist is given a space to work. Viewing from the light rail platform or The Chamber is spectacular. You often have to travel around the city to see a lot of work by different artists. The best part here is that you can see all the artist’s styles, tendencies, and trademark features in ONE place. There’s a Rain female portrait with eyes closed (trademark feature), Mike Wirth flow fields, a Matt Moore wolf, a Jen Hill pop art female. And so many more. Go get to know your Charlotte artists! And make sure you walk all the way around the building to see the graffiti wall!
View from Can Jam or the light rail platform
Location: 424 E. 36th Street Parking Deck Panels
Artist: Holly Keogh in collaboration with Goodyear Arts
Date: 2017
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @hckeogh, @goodyeararts
Story: Developer Crescent Communities commissioned artist Holly Keogh to cover the side of the parking deck located at the NoDa light rail station and the NOVEL Noda Apartments. The parking deck provides much needed parking for the mixed-use development as well as public parking for the neighborhood. Keogh created the design and worked with artists from Goodyear Arts, a local non-profit providing artist residencies, to implement the mural.
Key Formal Elements:
- Scale – this is a massive mural measuring almost 280 feet wide and 60 feet tall
- Highly saturated and flat colors provide a playful feeling
Make the Connection:
In this design, Keogh considers a familiar, yet nostalgic image of two people talking on the phone as a way to suggest connection. The artist suggests both the newly found literal connection provided by the long-awaited light rail line and the connection provided by a new community. The iconic NoDa water tower is included. Can you remember how many times artists have used the water tower in their work in NoDa?
Walk through parking lot, look to right at Jeni's
Title: Confetti Stripes Mural
Location: 424 E. 36th Street next to Jeni's Ice Cream
Artist: Evelyn Henson
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @evelyn_henson
Story: Charlotte artist Evelyn Henson captured our hearts with her “painting happy art to brighten your day” South End Confetti Hearts mural. Now we are seeing stripes in NoDa! Henson started painting 6 years ago and this mural marks her second public art project. I’d say she’s found success at this mural thing.
Key Formal Elements:
- Repetition
- Polychromatic color scheme
Make the Connection:
Instagram walls. Who knew we needed them. Henson makes the transition from her brightly colored more intimate scaled art to work on a public mural and enter the popularity of Instagrammable walls. Make sure you use the tag #confettistripeswall and #artwalksclt if you take a selfie.
Continue walking toward RR tracks
Title: Meta
Location: 424 E. 36th Street entrance
Artist: Ruth Ava Lyons
Date: 1995
Media: Glass tesserae and concrete
Artist Info: @ruthavalyonsart
Story: Ruth Ava Lyons and partner Paul Sires are artist legends in Charlotte. The artists found studio space in the NoDa area in the early 1980s, invested in properties and artists, and started the artistic renaissance of the neighborhood. Their gallery was called Center of the Earth Gallery and was located on N. Davidson Street. Lyons created her mosaic piece in 1995 but it recently found a new home in a permanent location in NoDa.
Key Formal Elements:
- Radial balance
- Cool colors in the background
Make the Connection:
Lyons works in the mosaic method which involves placing individual, small, squares of glass in concrete to create an image. The individual pieces of glass are referred to as tesserae. Lyons includes a butterfly as the central image as a sign of transformation and connection to the NoDa renaissance. She encircles the butterfly with symbols of the area’s past as a textile mill village. What symbols can you find? A textile mill? A spindle? Cotton?
Look across RR tracks
Location: 436 E. 36th Street
Artist: Mike Wirth with Brett Toukatly
Date: 2020
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @mikewirth, @b_twokat
Story: Mike Wirth is often working behind the scenes on projects, so it is fun to highlight his work in front of the building this time. As a co-founder of the Talking Walls city-wide mural festival and a co-founder of the Southern Tiger Collective, Wirth is a local leader in the mural scene. He also teaches graphic design and digital arts at Queens University of Charlotte.
Key Formal Elements:
- Variety
- Polychromatic color scheme
Make the Connection:
On the side wall of the Industrious NoDa location, Wirth wants to “represent that energy, action, and richness of the NoDa neighborhood” as the foremost arts district in Charlotte. The abstract colors and shapes bounce across the side wall and create movement and activity. Wirth’s signature flow fields unify the composition.
Walk along sidewalk near tracks at Novel Apartments
Location: 424 E. 36th Street loading dock mural at Novel NoDa Apartments
Artists: Matt Hooker, Matt Moore
Date: 2017
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @hookermedia, @puckmcgruff
Story: Matt Hooker and Matt Moore are some of the more prolific mural artists working in Charlotte. They bring diverse styles to each project. Here the artists cover loading dock doors with a hyper-realist portrait of a real woman @amandataylor80 and a writing quill. The mural was commissioned by @liveNOVELnoda.
Key Formal Elements:
- Face is entirely modeled using gray scale tones
- Notice the areas of highlights on her tip of her nose and her lips.
Make the Connection:
Look closely at the face of the woman. The shadows of the face are created using delicate cursive writing. In the painting of the writing quill, notice the same technique in the band of red. In descriptions of the work, the artists use the hashtag “#writeyourownstory. How does this hashtag help the viewer connect with potential meanings of this piece? Now can you connect that to a sense of place in NoDa?
Cross the tracks, look to your left
Location: ndustrious NoDa on the 35th Street side
Artist: Mike Wirth, Arko, Swych19
Date: 2021
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @mikewirth, @swych19, and @arko.clt
Story: So many bright colors and what a way to brighten up a corner! With support from Industrious CLT and the NoDa Neighborhood Business Association, artist Mike Wirth worked with Arko and Swych19 to cover this corner with bold shapes and designs. All three artists are very active in the arts community. Wirth is a founding member of the Talking Walls festival, Arko is known for his fun, playful, free-art drops, and Swych 19 is not known but is an active graffiti artist.
Key Formal Elements:
- Use of outline
- Lots of irregular and organic shapes
Make the Connection:
This mural is full of NoDa connections and it encourages interaction. See the “Eye” “Heart” NoDa corner? Take your selfie right there and tag @nodaclt. Make sure you see all the neighborhood icons like the guitar, coffee cup, beer mug, water tower, etc. All relate to the unique NoDa neighborhood. How many can you find?
Look around in the alley
Location: In the alley along 35th Street beside Industrious
Artist: Rebecca Lipps
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @rebeccalippsart
Story: Charlotte-based artist and educator Rebecca Lipps works in a variety of media. While trained as a painter, sculptor, and film maker, she also does murals and graffiti. Lipps loves her chosen community of NoDa and has a couple other artworks in the area including indoor at Heist Brewery, outdoor at Goodyear House and a painted Adirondack chair at the Johnston YMCA up the street.
Here’s a riddle for you. Can you figure out the artist’s signature at the bottom right? Her initials are RAL and this is a play on her name. Get it?
Key Formal Elements:
- Grey-scale of the face
- Symmetrical balance
Make the Connection:
Cool story. When the artist lived in this building, a large brick pile started to grow against this wall due to construction. Interjecting some positivity to this growing eyesore, Lipps first painted the small flower on the wall growing out of the brick pile. When the bricks were finally removed, she added the portrait, based on one of her self-portraits and the orange triangles suggesting the rays of the sun. As a nod to the creativity of NoDa and its continuing quest to support beauty, Lipps suggests that we can find beauty even in the unlikeliest of places, including the bottom of a wall, behind a building, down an alley.
Turn left onto 35th and look for sculpture
Location: Along E. 35th Street in front of parking lot
Artist:
Date:
Media: Metal
Artist Info:
Story:
Key Formal Elements:
- Variety rules this composition
- Texture is provided with different metals and shapes
Make the Connection:
The artist incorporates a variety of tools, blades, pipes, rebar, chains, and sheets of metal to visually connect the viewer to the industrial history of NoDa. With the textile mills and machinery parts being reused in the area’s renaissance, the neighborhood’s industrial history lives again. This time it is a simple, functional screen to hide vehicles in a parking lot.
Look for Trash Receptacle Art
Location: On N. Davidson Street
Artists: Ken Knudtsen
Date: 2020
Media: Acrylic Paint on construction board
Artist Info: @kenknudtsen
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:
- Strong use of outline
- Interplay of positive and negative spaces
Make the Connection:
Eight artists and eight different designs.
Artist Ken Knudtsen is a writer, illustrator and cartoonist. On his trash can, characters from his book, "My Monkey's Name is Jennifer" appear as well as John Wick from the action thriller movie. Knudtsen participated in the first year of CanJam and hopes to do more murals.
Find all eight in the business district by taking the NoDa Trash Can ArtWalk.
Walk down sidewalk to 3123 N. Davidson
Title: Talking Walls mural at Fat City Lofts
Location: 3123 N. Davidson Street
Artist: Neka King
Date: 2021
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @nnekkaa
Story: The Talking Walls mural festival is back in 2021 with a mission to “champion the diversity and vibrancy of our city through mural arts” and this TW mural does that and more. Atlanta-based muralist and illustrator Neka King uses the canvas of the former Fat City Deli side wall to produce a powerful gateway to NoDa, the city’s arts district. A recent graduate of Georgia State University, King works in portraiture to connect being Black, American, female and Southern. Here the artist uses an archival photograph of an African man to paint a signature portrait floating on the wall.
Key Formal Elements:
- Bold, organic shapes of flat color
- Repetition of smaller shapes in portrait
Make the Connection:
In work and words, King wants to disrupt the “canon” of standard art historical references. Here the portrait refers perhaps to a historical bust you may see rows of in a museum. But typically those busts are of white men and women. By disrupting our frame of reference, the artist invites the viewer to be a part of honoring Black bodies. How does the placement on this wall contribute to this message?
Also, so many art historical references here…if you want to go further google these artists, Aaron Douglas, Amy Sherald, Kara Walker, or Kerry James Marshall and get lost in the presentation of Black bodies.