Start at Optimist Hall near smokestack
Title: “Playing Pablo”
Location: 1115 N. Brevard St
Artist: HNin Nie
Date: 2023
Media: Acrylic Paint
Artist Info: @hninstagram
Story: In a special collaboration with the Mint Museum, HNin Nie created this mural during the run of the “Out of Bounds” exhibition of Picasso’s landscapes in spring 2023. Ten artists were chosen and paired with one of the Picasso paintings in the exhibit. With that inspiration in mind, they created ten murals all over the city. Nie is a young and talented painter and mixed media artist with murals in NoDa and Plaza Midwood. Her playful colors and fun imagery explore themes of identity, femininity, and invite you to delight in your everyday world. Missing in this mural: her signature cherry forms!
Key Formal Elements:
- Sharp, flat shapes of color with no shading
- Complementary colors of green and red
Make the Connection:
Nie drew inspiration from some elements of the Picasso landscape like the cubist style and the stepped pyramid shape in the center. But she also made the image more modern with elements like a road instead of a pathway and the fun asterisks.
Walk toward the light rail line
Title: “The Way of Water”
Location: 1115 N. Brevard St.
Artist: Brandon Sadler
Date: 2023
Media: Spray Paint
Artist Info: @risingredlotus
Story: Our Charlotte mural festival, Talking Walls, sponsored this mural along the support wall of the light rail train. Talking Walls is an annual mural festival bringing regional, national, and international artists to Charlotte for one week to paint murals and beautify our city. Brandon Sadler is an Atlanta-based artist known for his murals, illustration work, and explorations around identity, graphic design, and calligraphy.
Key Formal Elements:
- Line – outline, contour line
- Limited color palette
Make the Connection:
In a perfect pairing of location and artist, Sadler creates a meditation on “Flow” and movement and if you are lucky, you may see a light rail car pass by on the tracks. In a nod to an important and popular Chinese woodcut, “The Great Wave off Kanagawa,” Sadler’s mural flows from the tallest part of the support to the smallest in a series of waves.
** Get close enough to check out the texture of this wall and then give the artist virtual fist bump for painting so painstakingly on this rough surface.
Go to corner of Belmont and Caldwell
Title: XO
Location: 1009 N. Caldwell Street at corner of Belmont
Artist: Kyle Mosher
Date: 2020
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @thekylemosher
Story: Fine artist, gallery artist and street artist, Kyle Mosher’s work is all around Charlotte. Maybe you saw his mural on the South End Lovers Art Trail. Mosher’s aesthetic is rooted in his study of illustration, Cubism, his collage and cut paper style with some classical figures thrown in as well sometimes. But here it is all letters and graphics!
Key Formal Elements:
- Positive shapes of the letters
- Limited color palette
Make the Connection:
Kyle Mosher works with alot of corporate brands to develop artistic identities. Murals are where his graphic illustration roots merge with his painting.
Look for the mint green color which is a signature color for Mosher which you find in just about all of his murals.
Go to stoplight. Cross. Cross Belmont. Walk to 15th. Left.
Title: “Disco Ball”
Location: 420 E. 15th Street
Artist: Jen Hill
Date: 2021
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @2hills
Story: Jen Hill loves pop art, pin-ups, and all things colorful and cute. Hill is a local artist with a degree in art from East Carolina University. Her other murals are in Camp North End and South End and this wall was painted for Talking Walls 2021. Take a closer look at the brick of this older building. Notice how textured and uneven the brick appears. Hill calls this a “thirsty wall” meaning that it took a lot of paint to get the really saturated colors of her composition.
Key Formal Elements:
- Scale
- Geometric shapes of mirror tiles
Make the Connection:
Jen Hill loves glitter. And if she can’t put glitter in a mural it will be sparkly and shiny for sure. The “Disco Ball” sits slightly off center and twirls in the light creating lots of vibrant colors. Notice how the artist’s design integrates with the windows of the building.
Pro Tip: Catch the mural late afternoon or early sunset for the best light and color.
Walk by Flux Gallery
Flux Gallery often maintains one of their front walls as a sort of rotating mural gallery. Check it out as you walk by and make a note to stop by when they are open.
** Hobo Husband painted this wall in 2023.
Continue down 15th to N. Davidson
Title: Trips for Kids mural
Location: 516 E. 15th Street
Artist: Will Puckett, Lauren Puckett
Date: 2010
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @mr_puckett, @glassaeroplane
Story: Look at that date. This one is an oldie but goodie. Will Puckett is one of the original artists painting murals in Charlotte. Maybe the first. Puckett did early work adding iconic murals to places in NoDa like the Neighborhood Theatre and Jack Beagles. For this mural, he worked with Trips for Kids, a non-profit organization, providing cycling experiences for underserved youth. The mural project was funded with a grant from the Arts & Science Council.
Key Formal Elements:
- Heavy use of outline
- Cool colors of sky and green grass
Make the Connection:
Puckett and his wife built the pallets and installed them on the side of the building. Then he outlined the entire composition in paint-by number form and on April 16, 2010, community volunteers came and painted the mural.
This is such an early mural in Charlotte’s mural history. It’s great to see early work that still remains.
Cross N. Davidson to view
Location: 1200 N. Davidson St
Artist: Cheeks
Date: 2022
Media: Spray paint
Artist Info: @cheeks.clt
Story: Cheeks is a fun, talented, forward thinking local artist and he is very involved in the artist community. Cheeks was part of the Talking Walls mural festival in 2020, has completed murals in uptown and Myers Park and is known for his varying compositions, explorations of scale, and his digital art.
Key Formal Elements:
- Positive shape of the fish
- Limited color scheme
Make the Connection:
Squishy fishies. These fun goldfish-like fish are the signature element for Cheeks. You will find them in his digital art, his three-dimensional art, and as graffiti in some popular tagging spots.
This is the third mural on this wall by Cheeks. The original was painted in 2020 and read "Stay Safe." Another announced an upcoming exhibit.
Walk 1 block to corner of Belmont/Davidson St.
Title: “Midnight Gospel”
Location: Belmont Ave
Artist: Matt Moore with Chris Nichols and Elliana Esquivel
Date: 2023
Media: Aerosol paint
Artist Info: @puckmcgruff, @chrisnicholsart, @elesq
Story: In another parking garage mural, Matt Moore and his artist crew of Chris Nichols and Elliana Esquivel, thrill the viewer with scale, color, and an explosion of ideas on two massive walls. Moore has been pushing the Charlotte mural arts community since his early days of his murals with Matt Hooker.
Key Formal Elements:
- Scale
- Bold use of LINE in the owl
Make the Connection:
So much to explore here on both walls of the parking garage. With a color scheme heavy on purples, the viewer can connect the stunning portrait and owl with the fantasy landscape anchoring the corner of the right wall. This is not the only mural by Moore with an owl. Moore painted an owl in a mural in South End. Enjoy the constant contrast of both realist imagery and the more graphics-inspired elements that feature in a lot of Moore’s work.
On side wall of Birdsong
Title: "Treasure Keeper"
Location: 1016 N. Davidson Street
Artist: Wingchow
Date: 2023
Media: Aerosol paint
Artist Info: @wingchow
Story: Our Charlotte mural festival, Talking Walls, sponsored this mural on the side wall of Birdsong Brewery. Talking Walls is an annual mural festival bringing regional, national, and international artists to Charlotte for one week to paint murals and beautify our city. Wing Chow is a muralist and artist with strong roots in Richmond, Virginia and is now based in Washington, DC. Her signature abstract forms are usually playful, colorful and create a dynamic setting for your imagination to explore.
Key Formal Elements:
- Asymmetrical balance
- Polychromatic color scheme
Make the Connection:
Wingchow’s signature abstract bubble forms take up space on the left side of this mural while the artist makes a connection to the business location, Birdsong Brewery, on the right side of the mural. Consider the obstacles of this wall with a ramp, loading dock door, vents, and dumpster, and then consider how skillfully the artist arranges her composition to work with the wall. The painting of the dumpster was a last-minute decision shortly before the artist left for the airport, but it completes the mural!
Turn left on N. Davidson, walk 1 block
Title: Motorcycle Mural
Location: E. 13thStreet and N. Davidson Street
Artist: Junior Gomez
Date: 2024
Media: Spray Paint
Artist Info: mn@juniordesigns
Story: At over 1K square feet, this is the largest mural to date by artist Junior Gomez. As a full-time artist, Gomez completes studio commissions as well as murals. Gomez has a mural in Luminous Lane. Here, the client gave him complete artistic freedom to create, and the fullest expression of this mural is very personal. The motorcyclist represents determination and focus and symbolizes the artist’s passion to be a full-time artist. But you can appreciate the mural because it is large, cool, and a great addition to this sweet little section of Optimist Park.
Key Formal Elements:
- Scale, truly covering the entire side of the building
- Nice mix of warm colors of pinks and yellows with the cool colors of blue
Make the Connection:
Get up close to this mural! Do you see the wavy corrugated metal that the artist had to paint this mural on? Think for a minute about how difficult that would be. Your painting surface is not even and somehow you have to create straight lines that look correct from both angles. Now give the artist a virtual high five for completing such a super mural on a challenging surface!