Title: UnderPass Mural
Location: N. Tryon Street at Ashby Road
Artist: Sam Guzzie and Lane Morris
Date: 2017
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @samguzzie
Story: It is such an honor to include information on one of the most important, creative and humble artists in Charlotte. Sam Guzzie was one of the first mural artists that ArtWalks CLT talked to in early 2019 about our growing mural and street art community. Guzzie, from Philadelphia, is the founder along with Hannah Fairweather of Brand the Moth, one of the original street art based non-profits in Charlotte. Brand the Moth ran the first mural artist residency program, curated the influential Black Lives Matter mural Uptown, and partnered with ArtWalks CLT on our “Threading Through” Greenway mural and Art Trail in 2021.
Key Formal Elements:
This mural project was a partnership with Brand the Moth, the Men’s Shelter of Charlotte, North End Partners and the Police Department and took two years to complete. During community meetings with Men’s Shelter residents and police officers, Guzzie and artist Lane Morris came up with the theme for the mural which was then painted by those community members. The “Love is the bridge between you and everything else” is a quote from Rumi, a 13th century poet and Islamic scholar.
Title: Extravaganza
Location: 1610 N. Tryon Street
Artist: BellaPhame
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @bellaphame
Story: This husband-and-wife artist team form their art name with a combination of each of their individual names. They work internationally and were part of the 2019 Talking Walls Festival. Talking Walls is a city-wide public art and mural festival bringing together artists to enliven the cityscape of Charlotte. The festival started in 2018 and happens occasionally with the last event in 2023.
Key Formal Elements:
The purple and teal colors represent their artistic partnership. Each color is a connection to one of them and their use is always balanced in their art. If you had an artistic color, what would it be? Their combination of shapes and letters form a dynamic flow across the façade of the building. Do you see clues to the festival and other Charlotte artists’ names?
At this colorful, mural-filled, abandoned building site at the corner of Keswick and Tryon Street, artists Sydney Duarte and Treazy are creating a beauty and inspiration filled art stop. Duarte and Treazy are two of the most active and involved artists in our Charlotte art community. They created and curated the Luminous Lane alley of murals and are the co-founders of the Piece for Peace movement and the TAOH Outdoor Gallery. Out front, the seating area was painted during a community paint day and funded with a grant from the City of Charlotte Placemaking Program. The four main murals at the site are the “Awakening the Light” Mural of two hands, the Shaman, the Warrior, and the Angel.
The mural of two hands titled “Awakening the Light” was painted primarily by Duarte in 2022. Here the familiar color scheme of blues and purples creates connectivity and recognition of their work. The symmetrically balanced composition with the two beautifully realistic and highlighted hands on each side reflects the spiritual quality of their work. Co-creator Treazy says of this mural, “The power is in your hands. How do you want to use your hands?”
The Warrior/Jaguar (2024) spirit runs deep with this mural. The perfect bilateral symmetry in this mural creates a connection to the mystical or spirit world and it a connection to our ancient worlds. The strong use of outline around the shapes of color and the limited color scheme shows us a fierce warrior spirit that Treazy believes “is transforming this planet with peace, love and light.”
The Angel is a bit of a departure from some of the artists collective work as the figure is more classical with the draped robes and appears to be an angel with the wings. Also, the color scheme while similar relies on more pinks and oranges. Perhaps representing creativity or inspiration, the figure holds a spray can and may be a reference to the artists desire to color our world with love and light.
The Shaman (2023) was painted by Treazy and depicts the feeling that there is a spiritual shaman or star being that is working with you to change the world. This may be one of the first renditions of the Piece for Peace logo which you can see in the bottom right corner. Light is so prominent in this mural, and it speaks to the artists’ ideas of bringing light to the world with creativity and art.
Title: Sidewalk Mural at Keswick
Location: Corner of N. Tyron St and Keswick
Artist: Sydney Duarte with Mitzi Patton
Date: 2024
Media: Acrylic Paint
Artist Info: @duartedesigns, @littlebirdmitzi
Story: This sidewalk mural is one of three sidewalk murals that are part of the North End Art Trail project created by ArtWalks CLT and completed through a Placemaking Grant from Charlotte Urban Design in 2024. Sydney Duarte is a local and internationally known artist and is a member of the Placemaking pool of artists at the City of Charlotte. As a placemaking project, the goal of this project was to add some wayfinding features, beautify this corridor which is mostly industrial but changing quickly to a more walkable area, and add more art to an area without many art resources. Part of the grant included an apprentice artist, and Mitzi Patton co-painted with Duarte.
Key Formal Elements:
So many fun connections to community in this sweet mural! Camp North End with its iconic water tower, the train, a rendition of an original house found in the surrounding neighborhoods and uptown skyline all provide visual reminders of the uniqueness of this place. For Duarte, who has been adding art to this area since early 2022, it was important to provide a welcoming scene of color along this stretch of N. Tryon Street which often sees travelers arrive at the train station and walk toward uptown.
Title: Starbucks Mural
Location: 1901 N. Tryon Street
Artist: Nick Napoletano
Date: 2024
Media: Spray Paint
Artist Info: @napoletanoart
Story: The Starbucks Community Store Program launched in 2015 and allows for community stores to connect with local creators to produce custom artwork for their store. Showcasing the fabulous mural work of Nick Napoletano along this stretch of fast-moving N. Tryon Street, Starbucks provides a pop of color and coffee to commuters. Napoletano is an internationally renowned mural artist and has been active in the Charlotte mural community since around 2016.
Key Formal Elements:
So many beautiful layers in this mural! The hyper-realistic (almost photograph quality like) portrait of the young girl draws our attention first but then we begin to notice the natural elements flowing in the background. The artist includes the red cardinal and the dogwood tree flowers which was both symbolic of the state of North Carolina. The hummingbird is a more spiritual connection as in some cultures it is suggestive of a messenger of the gods. All is it makes us not mind waiting in line for a latte!
Title: Sidewalk Mural 2
Location: N. Church Street
Artist: Bunny Gregory with Tiya Caniel
Date: 2024
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info:
Story: This sidewalk mural is one of three sidewalk murals that are part of the North End Art Trail project created by ArtWalks CLT and completed through a Placemaking Grant from Charlotte Urban Design in 2025. Bunny Gregory is a local mixed media artist and is one of the Placemaking pool of artists at the City of Charlotte. As a placemaking project, the goal of this project was to create some wayfinding features, beautify this corridor which is mostly industrial but changing quickly to a more walkable area, and add more art to an area without many art resources. Part of the grant included an apprentice artist, and Tiya Caniel co-painted with Gregory.
Key Formal Elements:
Gregory’s design is a colorful fusion of industrial and natural elements, weaving together the mechanical precision of bicycle gears and industrial elements with the organic beauty of delicate flower forms. The artist draws influence from the past industrial uses in this area and nature. At the center, interlocking gears form a dynamic, swirling pattern with geometric shapes grounding the design in a sense of motion and industry. Wisps of sunflower forms flow like a gentle breeze. Splashes of color-lavender and pink and greens and yellow – bring the mural to life with energy and contrast. Gregory’s signature interlocking and overlapping circle suggest unity and connection.
Title: Pure Intentions mural
Location: 2215 N. Tryon Street
Artist: Arko & Owl
Date: 2018
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info:@arko.clt, @owl.clt
Story: Prominent local artists Arko and Owl are another artistic team whose projects embrace the balance of two very different styles. Owl’s metaphysical blob forms of undulating lines flow across the wall. While the magical, fantasy landscapes produced by Arko tell the story of his make-believe world. Together they are richly layered and delight the eye. Oh, and the artists wear masks when they work.
Key Formal Elements:
Why wear a mask when they work? Each believes that working while masked allows them to create freely and removes any gender or ethnicity from their work. In this composition which spans two walls and a corner, an Arko figure sees a vision and follows that vision around the corner where the Owl blob forms flow across the doors. The playful figure on the green blobs of grass searches the landscape for more. Fast forward to 2025 and the combined style of these two artists is a real treat to find in CLT. While no longer working together, each still produces work with their signature style. This is a classic to still have in CLT!
Title: Mural at
Location: North Tryon Street at 27th Street
Artist: Matt Moore
Date: 2018
Media: Spray Paint
Artist Info: @puckmcgruff
Story: Boy, this goes back to the early days of the mural movement in Charlotte! 2018. And of course, it features the usual cast of characters, Matt Moore and also working on this project were Matt Hooker and Tucker Sward. Moore and Hooker were key artists credited with jump starting the mural movement with their early mural work in Plaza-Midwood and uptown. Also ArtWalks CLT launched in 2018 as did the Talking Walls mural festival.
Key Formal Elements:
This mural is an early exploration of some of the themes that still thrill us about the work of Matt Moore and his crew. The focus on a figure, rendered in extreme realism with life-like highlights and visual textures and the combination of some type of more-graphic element. Classic. Fast forward to more recent work by the artist and you will still see this recognizable compositional device.
Title: Adapt Mural
Location: N. Tryon Street
Artist: Treazy
Date: 2022
Media: Spray paint
Artist Info: @treazytreaz
Story: Treazy explores his love of nature and the environment in this explosion of fruit, leaves, and salamanders. Treazy is an internationally mural and installation artist working collaboratively with many artists around the world. Recently, he and partner Sydney Duarte completed an installation for Burning Man in 2023 and participated in murals festivals in Europe throughout 2024.
Key Formal Elements:
Find the watermelon rinds and red fruit in the mural. While the artist was painting this mural, he had poison ivy and since the artist is from Australia, this was his first experience with the dreaded three-leaved vine. Watermelon rind is a non-medicinal way to relieve the itch of poison ivy and the artist wrote about eating a lot of it while trying not to scratch. We can relate Treazy.
Spray Jam North is located along the side of a mechanic’s shop with a total of 10 murals. These murals were painted during the arts festival Charlotte Shout in April 2024. For the past three years, Sydney Duarte curated a group of artists to paint during the festival and while several large-scale murals were being painted uptown (on our Mad About Murals ArtWalk), this intervention along N. Tryon Street was an opportunity for ten additional artists to paint a smaller mural. Each could address the idea of the Piece for Peace Movement with their own artistic interpretation.
Silver Sells is part of the Primed n Ready Mural team along with Brian Marquez. She also painted in Luminous Lane in 2024 and is active painting at the TAOH Outdoor Gallery. A mermaid in a wishing well surrounded by the phases of the moon and constellations makes for a dreamy and peaceful mural.
Emily Nunez’s mural is titled “Cerca De Mi Corazon." Nunez looks for peace in her Dominican heritage and depicts a scene that brings here calmness and connection to her roots. A young woman is depicted gently holding a brightly colored chicken. Framed by the native flora and fauna and natural elements around the side, the mural is a meditation on self-expression for the artist and a beautiful display of celebrating what makes each person unique!
Erin Sorrow-Joy (Estko) loves lines. And dots. And when you get up close to this mural you will see lots of lines and lots of dots. Her inspiration comes from looking at nature and bugs, insects, etc and she meticulously and intentionally puts it all together with symmetry. This is the artist’s interpretation for the Piece for Peace movement and maybe you see a face or maybe you see a bird tending to its nest.
Rebecca Lipps is a Charlotte artist and educator doing immersive, interactive, multi-media work and she’s an amazing muralist. Lipps rendered part of this design during a mural mashup competition for Charlotte Shout and here she adds some additional elements and makes it permanent. The hand makes the familiar peace sign and the symbol for the TAOH (The Awakening of Humanity) is included. Triangles energize the background and are a familiar device used by Lipps.
Pam Imhof lets us flow through the artist’s brain a bit with the swirls, and organic lines in her mural. Add that to the inclusion of the fiber art yarn bombs attached to the windows and you have the fullest expression of the artist herself. Signature flowers and a beautiful moth create so much variety and balance in this mural. We love how the artist creates space by daring to escape the confines of her allotted area and spreads out into the world.
Katrina Cherry is a Charlotte artist inspired by Afro-Futurism, tribal patterns, and radiating energy. Cherry paints a seated figure in the lotus position of receiving peace and energy with raised and open hands. Inside the figure, she rendered lettering and designs for the Piece for Peace movement. The warm colors of the figure contrast with the cool colors of the background.
Esther Moorehead painted this sweet, fun, figure of a young child surrounded by the words PEACE. Moorehead is a studio and fine artist moving back and forth between the mural world and the gallery. While a little bit different than her typical style, Moorehead centers the child as a symbol for hope and change with the young generation.
Sydney Duarte/Treazy are responsible for so much of this art happening along N. Tryon Street and this project is another example. Who doesn’t love this happy, go luck Earth being who is spreading word about PEACE with art (notice the spray can). Rainbow colors, the Piece for Peace logo and the peace hands sign light up this wall. The artists were painting on Earth Day, and this is the perfect message.
Nony is a well-known Charlotte artist with murals all over the city. His Toritos de Pucara painted here reflect his cultural heritage. They are small, colorful, hand-painted ceramic bulls that symbolize protection, happiness and fertility in Peruvian culture. They are often shown in pairs to display harmony and balance. In the center, a hummingbird flaps their open wings. They are often a symbol of beauty, nature, and viewed as messenger from the heavens.
Sungai Studios is the art of Erik Woodall and he specializes in mural, digital design, but also incredibly intricate wild-style graffiti lettering. His mural work can be realistic but also an energetic abstract flow of colors. In this mural, the rose and abstract shapes are all expertly rendered with a spray can of paint.
Title: Evolution vs. Preservation
Location: Corner of N. Tryon Street and 32ndStreet
Artist: Pam Imhof with Saiga Saturn
Date: 2025
Media: Exterior Paint
Artist Info: @theleftbrainedartist, @saigasaturn
Story: This sidewalk mural is one of three sidewalk murals that are part of the North End Art Trail project created by ArtWalks CLT and completed through a Placemaking Grant from Charlotte Urban Design in 2025. Pam Imhof is a local mixed media artist and is one of the Placemaking pool of artists at the City of Charlotte. As a placemaking project, the goal of this project was to create some wayfinding features, beautify this corridor which is mostly industrial but changing quickly to a more walkable area, and add more art to an area without many art resources. Part of the grant included an apprentice artist funded by Charlotte is Creative, and Saiga Saturn co-painted with Imhof.
Key Formal Elements:
Imhof used the results from the North End Art Trail Community Survey to inspire her composition. The community asked for bright colors! Check! The rounded shapes forming the background of the mural represent some of the “quonset style” buildings that were erected on Atando Avenue shortly after WWII. If you drive down Atando, you can still see a few of them left. The beautiful moth on the left side is a familiar subject matter in Imhof’s work as the artist is drawn to the symbolism of their life cycle and periods of ebb and flow.
Title: NoDa Brewery Mural
Location: 150 W. 32nd Street
Artist: Southern Tiger Collective
Date: 2018
Media: Acrylic Paint
Artist Info: @southerntigercollective
Story: One of the original breweries in CLT commissioned this large-scale Charlotte themed mural from Southern Tiger Collective. Southern Tiger Collective was an important artist collective supporting street artist during the early days of Charlotte’s mural movement. They were founding members of the Talking Walls mural festival. This mural serves as a giant welcome sign for the brewery.
Key Formal Elements:
Pick a CLT icon and it is probably in this mural. The Firebird? Yep. Eastland Mall logo. I see it. Nascar, hops, and you gotta have a skyline and a Queen Charlotte. Love this celebration of all things Charlotte that has become an icon itself. If you have a chance to step inside, there are murals inside as well and another mural on the side façade facing Tryon Street by Carla Garrison-Mattos. Thank you, NoDa Brewery, for supporting so many artists!
Title: Hot Glass Alley Mural
Location: 438 Atando Avenue
Artist: Katie Kummerer and Lillian McKenzie
Date: 2023
Media: Acrylic Paint
Artist Info: @finegraffiti
Story: Hot Glass Alley is a glass blowing studio operated by renowned glass artist Jake Pfeifer and now they are supporting other artists with this mural on the side of their business. Talk about signage! Katie Kummerer of Fine Graffiti completed this mural featuring owner Jake in the center.
Key Formal Elements:
Owner Jake Pfeifer is shown in the middle and surrounded by different stages of glassblowing. The fiery orange color represents the heat of the Glory Hole (where the glass blower forms the work) which can reach over 1000 degrees.
Title: Depena Studio mural
Location: Atando Avenue
Artist: Ivan Depena
Date: 2023
Media: Spray Paint
Artist Info: @depenastudio
Story: Ivan Toth Depena is an internationally known interdisciplinary artist and public artist and this is the Depena Studio mural. Depena first came to Charlotte as part of the McColl residency program and has been an active part of the art community ever since. He has a mural in South End and several public sculptures in South End and Uptown. This mural was funded through a placemaking grant from Charlotte Urban Design.
Key Formal Elements:
Depena’s work defies any type of categorization as his work is constantly evolving and morphing with creative influences from technology, fine arts, architecture, science, and constant experimentation. Here the idea of pixels or glitches are painted across the studio wall to create visual interest. Fun fact: Depena was a graffiti artist Miami in his early days and often returns to the spray can like in project like this.
Title: Charlotte Re-Cyclery Mural
Location: 812 Atando Avenue
Artist: Natalie Robinson
Date: 2024
Media: Acrylic Paint
Artist Info: @natalierobinson_art
Story: Trips for Kids Charlotte (TFKC) and the Charlotte Re-Cyclery are community-based non-profits focusing on mobility, sustainability, and the empowering and connecting roles of bicycles for both transportation and recreation in Charlotte. This mural at the front of their business was funded with a Charlotte Urban Design Placemaking Grant. Natalie Robinson, a young and rising star in the regional mural world was selected to create a mural to welcome the public to this business and celebrate their mission. We’d say she nailed it!
Key Formal Elements:
Several community engagement sessions were held to help form ideas around the composition of this mural. Robinson honored the mission of this long-standing business with the large, focal point of the young girl confidently riding her bike. The TFKC truck is included as well as the showroom dog, Dot Dot.
Title: Bingo Tires Mural
Location: 4026 North Tryon Street
Artist: Kalin Devone
Date: 2023
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @
Story: This mural project was a collaboration between Harris Teeter, Procter and Gamble, and artist Kalin Devone and was a 2023 Inspiration Project by Art Pop Street Gallery. Art Pop is a local non-profit showcasing local artists primarily through their Cities billboard advertising program where artist’s work is reproduced on large scale billboards throughout the city.
Key Formal Elements:
This mural was painted as a Women’s History Month mural and include portraits of three trailblazing women. One the left if American aviator Bessie Coleman who was the first African American woman to hold a pilots license. In the center, the artist depicts Guatemalan-American scientist Nicole Hernandez Hammer who is a leading researcher on the impacts of climate chance on communities of color. And Queen Lili’uokalani of Hawaii served as the Queen monarch and worked to restore the monarchy and voting rights of the disenfranchised.
Title: Le’s Sandwich’s mural
Location: 4520 North Tryon Street
Artist: Kathryn Crawford
Date: 2023
Media: Acrylic Paint
Artist Info: @kathryncrawfordart
Story: Le’s (pronounced Lays) Sandwiches commissioned Asheville artist Kathryn Crawford to create a mural for their new location in this outbuilding at the corner of Tryon and Sugar Creek. Crawford is a super star mural artist and has several murals in Charlotte including one for the Talking Walls Mural Festival in 2020 and a mural on our MORA Art Trail.
Key Formal Elements:
The owners asked Crawford to include some native flowers from Asia. Fortunately, the artist is an expert in painting flowers, as they are one of her favorite subject matters. The flowers represent some of the Asian cultures that were part of the former Asian Corner Mall. Find the beautiful orchids and the large lotus blossom.
Sydney Duarte of Duarte Designs and partner Treazy completed this mural as part of a Charlotte Urban Design Placemaking Grant in 2023. Lions Services helps persons who are blind or visually impaired find meaningful jobs and careers. Based on the workshop that Duarte held with employees, key elements of the mural illustrate our non-sighted neighbors biking, walking, and being part of our community with no limits. During the painting of the mural, Duarte invited employees to paint some of the flowers in the mural using stencils. So this is truly a community mural serving its community.
Abel Jackson created the mural on the right through a commission from the Living Archives Charlotte organization. This mural illustrates many of the emotional responses to the COVID-19 pandemic through the incredibly detailed portraits of individuals by Jackson. The six emotions and experiences are community service, anxiety and stress, sadness and depression, finding peace amid adversity, isolation and fear, and strength and resilience. Each of the portraits is of a community member chosen by Living Archives to exemplify that quality.