This artwalk starts and ends at the seating plaza at the corner of Thomas Avenue and Central Avenue. Follow the walking directions for each of the 16 artworks on this walk. Be careful crossing the streets, tag the artist in your photos, and stop to have a drink or bite to eat. Tag us @artwalksclt with your fun adventures! For more information on the history of Plaza Midwood, see www.historysouth.org and the wonderful writings of community historian Tom Hanchett.
Location: At the intersection of Thomas Avenue and Central Avenue
Artist: Ruth Ava Lyons and Paul Sires
Date:
Media: Mosaic tile and terracotta
Artists Info: @ruthavalyonsart, www.jpaulsires.com
Story: Thank goodness for good memories! Information was hard to find on this older project (since it was before social media…) but artists Paul Sires and Ruth Ava Lyons remembered a lot about the project they completed some years ago. The sculptures and seating area were commissioned by the Plaza Midwood Development Partners and the City of Charlotte. For the house, glass tesserae are set on a hand cast concrete and steel structure. The granite for the benches came from a NC quarry. And the terracotta capital sculpture has hand carved symbols.
Key Formal Elements:
So many symbols. The tree on the house connects to the pride of Plaza Midwood residents in their beautiful tree canopy. The hand “represents the power to hold positivity and creativity as a beacon that welcomes diversity” and you will find mill symbols on the capital sculpture. There’s also a time capsule filled with material from residents! What three items would you put in a time capsule today?
Location: 1516 Central Avenue wall of the Coultrane’s Char Grill
Artists: Matt Hooker, Matt Moore
Date: 2017
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @hookermedia, @puckmcgruff
Story: Matt Hooker and Matt Moore are icons of the Charlotte mural world. Here, the artists celebrate the diversity and eclectic quality of the Plaza Midwood neighborhood with themes of fantasy, children, magic, and animals.
Key Formal Elements:
Can you make out the letters on the left of the mural and figure out what they spell? What is one object in the mural that relates to the theme of families and children? How is the idea of creativity or transformation expressed by the artists in the mural?
Location: 1510 Central Avenue back wall in the parking lot at corner of Central Avenue and Thomas Avenue
Artists: Matt Hooker, Matt Moore, Nick Napoletano
Date: 2016
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @hookermedia, @puckmcgruff, @napoletanoart
Story: Large wall mural features a portrait of Brandy Alexander, a celebrated North Carolina drag queen, and uses her image to create awareness around the 2016 HB2 conflict and discrimination against the LGBT community.
Key Formal Elements:
The use of iconography or symbols in this artwork is important. Who is Pat McCrory and what was his role in Charlotte? Why is his portrait delicately included in the cameo earrings? How does the gender-neutral charm at the end of the pearl necklace relate to the HB2 issue? What may be the significance of the breaking shackles?
Location: 1228 Gordon Street on the side wall of Snug Harbor
Artist: Scott Nurkin
Date: 2014
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @themuralshop
Story: This large wall mural draws upon the timeless story of the Sirens in the Odyssey. A sailor is tied to the mast of his ship so that he cannot follow the call of the Sirens in the ancient Greek poem.
Key Formal Elements:
Snug Harbor can sometimes refer to a safe or comfortable place. How does the story of the sailor resisting the charms of the Sirens refer to this business’s sense of place?
Location: Gordon Street at Pecan
Artists: Scott Nurkin, Leandro Manzo, Georgie Nakima, Kat Sanchez-Standfield, Cheeks, Amy Bagwell, Renee Cloud, De-Angelo Dia
Date: 2021
Media: Acrylic paint
Artists Info: Various
Story: Check out this WIP. This is your chance to see artists working. Stop here at the Gordon Street Murals project in the alley between Snug Harbor and the paint store. Five artists are each painting a section of the wall and some are in progress or almost finished. This project was funded with CARES act funding and seeks to activate unused spaces and support our local artists.
Key Formal Elements:
Art as placemaking tool. On the other side of this group mural is one of the original murals in Plaza Midwood. This alley, which has been trash strewn at times and overlooked, now becomes a public space connecting Gordon Street and Thomas Street. Stop by regularly to check on the progress.
Location: 1500 Central Avenue side wall and back wall on the electrical boxes
Artists: Wall Poems of Charlotte, Graham Carew, The Mural Shop
Date: 2016
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @wallpoems, @muralshop, @grahamcarew
Story: Wall Poems of Charlotte is an effort to integrate poetry into urban areas of the city. The organization has completed over a dozen installations featuring the work of North Carolina poets. “Love Comes Quietly” is a poem by Robert Creeley, an influential American poet associated with the Black Mountain Poets.
Key Formal Elements:
Creeley was known for the emotions in his poetry. What emotions do you feel when you read his poem and see the art that accompanies it? How does the emotional quality of his work fit into the artwork’s surroundings? Also don’t forget to walk around the building to the Central Avenue side and look up to see the other part of the work.
Location: 1212 Pecan Avenue, the former Peculiar Rabbit Restaurant
Artists: Mike Wirth, Dustin Moates
Date: 2018
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @southerntigercollective
Story: Large, outdoor, story and a half mural on the side of a popular restaurant features a friendly rabbit inviting you in for a drink.
Key Formal Elements:
Check out the swirls and movement in the blue and yellow background of the artwork. The artists use the famous Vincent Van Gogh painting “Starry Night” for inspiration. According to Google Art, there are more searches for “Starry Night” than for any other painting. What is your favorite painting?
Location: 1801 Commonwealth Avenue
Artist: Ashley Graham
Date: 2018
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @grahamarts
Story: Playful, fun monkeys and luscious fruit flow around two sides of the Smooth Monkey smoothie shop.
Key Formal Elements:
Notice how the monkeys are rendered in a greyscale, or the use of only black and white. Think about how that choice by the artist impacts how you encounter the other parts of the composition.
Location: 1912 Commonwealth Avenue, side wall of Okra Charlotte yoga studio.
Artists:
Date: 2018
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @dr.rickamortis, @you_are_jah
Story: The artists created a mural with the quote, “Before I die, I will live” on one side and a meditating seated figure on the other.
Key Formal Elements:
The meditative figure is cleverly arranged around a pipe on the exterior on the building. The locations of the seven chakras of the body are depicted vertically down the pipe. Chakras are various points in the body used in ancient meditation practices. What other imagery connects this piece to the yoga studio and wellness center?
Location: 2007 Commonwealth Avenue
Artist: Mike Wirth
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artists Info: @mikewirth, with @the_wizard_jeffries
Story: After the unexpected death of much-loved patron Jon-O, the Common Market asked artist Mike Wirth to paint a mural as a way to honor his memory and offer healing to his friends and community. Wirth reached out to a friend of Jon-Os and with the help of James, many who knew Jon-O were able to help with the mural.
Key Formal Elements:
The life of Jon-O is celebrated in this full spectrum of color mural. From left to right, the colors create a rainbow of love. Unique aspects of the life of Jon-O from playing chess and cards to some of his frequent sayings floating in the paisley shapes, allow friends and family to remember his exuberant life.
Location: 1201 The Plaza
Artist: Christine Dryden
Date: 2019
Media: Printed vinyl
Artist Info: @christinedryden.art
Story: Through a Placemaking Grant from the City of Charlotte, the Plaza Midwood Neighborhood Association sponsored eight artists to cover traffic signal boxes in the neighborhood. Like the Amplify Charlotte project by Laurie Smithwick in South End, the signal wrap project takes utilitarian boxes and turns them into art. Beauty meets function!
Key Formal Elements:
Artist Christine Dryden uses a project with her students at Chantilly Montessori School as inspiration for her art. The collage project created images of Charlotte landmarks in the style of Eric Carle, the illustrator of the famous children’s book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Can you find a favorite place for pizza in the neighborhood, Fuel Pizza?
Location: 1217 The Plaza
Artist: Darion Fleming
Date: 2020
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info:@daflemingo
Story: Giddy Goat Coffee Roasters couldn’t really have a fish mural on the outside of their new coffee business. So, they commissioned the artist who completed the former mural on this wall to create a new one. And boy are we glad. Artist Darion Fleming covers this massive wall with colorful, decorative coffee plant imagery but what really steals the show is the grey-scale close up of the hands holding the cup of coffee.
Key Formal Elements:
How well do you know coffee?
According to legend, coffee plants were discovered by a herder who noticed his goats became more active after they ate the plants.
The US imports more coffee than any other nation.
The coffee bean is not really a bean. It is a seed. It comes from the Arabica or Robusta plant and its fruit, as you see in the mural, is rounded and red in color.
Over 400 million cups of coffee are consumed each day in the US.
Location: 1217 The Plaza, side wall of the former Sushi Guru restaurant
Artist: Darion Fleming
Date: 2018
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @da.flemingo
Story: On a large side wall of the restaurant, a massive fish entices you to dinner.
Key Formal Elements:
** NOTE: This mural was removed in August 2020.
The artist creates a humorous connection to the type of restaurant formerly located in the building. How specifically does he design the fish?
Location: 1704 Central Avenue
Artist: Tom Thoune
Date: 2013
Media: Mosaic tile
Artist Info: @tom_thoune
Story: This was the site of the original grocery store opened by W.T. Harris in 1936. This store was the first full-service supermarket, first air-conditioned store, and the first to stay open until 9 pm on a Friday. So many innovations! Harris merged with Teeter Food Market in 1960 to form Harris Teeter. Industrial art deco building design is featured as a connection to existing art deco buildings along the Central Avenue corridor.
Key Formal Elements:
Artist Tom Thoune gathered pottery pieces from community members to make his mosaic medallions along the sides of the building. Each of the seven medallions references a different part of the grocery store. Make sure you see the bike racks designed by Shaun Cassidy for a nice art deco touch!
Location: 1600 Central Ave on front wall of Pizza Peel
Artist: Darion Fleming
Date: 2018
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @da.flemingo
Story: This mural is a part of the 2018 Talking Walls Festival, a week-long celebration of murals and street arts. During Talking Walls, 17 artists live-painted murals across the city. Local business sponsors supported the effort and the artists with walls to paint.
Key Formal Elements:
Darion Fleming is a young, talented artist who got his first start designing cans of beer for local breweries. He quickly moved to a much larger scale designing walls for Catawba Brewery and Divine Barrel. With his two major murals in Plaza-Midwood, he’s exploring subject matter of animals but with a twist. In his mural at Sushi Guru he sliced his fish. Here he shows the viewer the body of the snake but allows his snake to escape out of the frame of his mural. Does this heighten the awareness of this slithering snake or merely seem like a design decision? Or both?
Location: 1600 Central Avenue
Artist: Niki Zarrabi
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @nikizarrabi
Story: Atlanta-based Niki Zarrabi painted this mural for Talking Walls 2019. Zarrabi, an Iranian-American mixed-media artist, works in both a smaller studio scale and very large outdoor mural projects.
Key Formal Elements:
Zarrabi explores a type of vanitas or imagery that suggests the fragile and fleeting quality of life. She is also interested in portraying power in typically feminine images. What details of the mural suggest the idea of the transience of life? How does the artist use feminine subject matter to suggest power?
Location: Central Avenue and Thomas Avenue
Artist: Kelly Rose Creations, Ashley Jane
Date: 2020
Media: Fiber arts
Artist Info: @kellyrosecreations, @fromyarntostitches
Story: Two fiber and textile artists cooked up this fun new piece in Plaza Midwood. HaHa. See what we did there. Part of the We Craft CLT artist collective, these two artists collaborated to create the backing and the cup of coffee and plates of breakfast in front of Zada Janes.
Key Formal Elements:
** This yarn bombing was removed in 2020.
Plaza Midwood has been yarn bombed! It had to happen. All the cool neighborhoods have them. Yarn bombing is a type of graffiti or street art that uses colorful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fiber arts. A temporary art installation, it creates visual interest and connects to the business located at the corner.
Location: 1301 Thomas Avenue
Artist: Dakotah Aiyanna
Date: 2020
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @dakotahaiyanna
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 this summer. Artists from the City’s Placemaking Artist Pool are installing street murals that capture the impact of COVID – 19 and the resiliency and sustainability of our city.
Key Formal Elements:
For multidisciplinary artist Aiyanna, COVID was a time for introspection and more time for connecting with nature. In this street mural, she borrows a version of the iconic “You can do it” imagery but replaces a head for a flower. Perhaps her message is that if we remove our ego and become closer to nature our strength will grow.
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