Start at Thomas Avenue Seating Plaza
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:
- Installation
- Texture
Make the Connection:
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?
Look at side wall of former Coultrane's
Location: 1516 Central Avenue wall of the former 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 that all related to the neighborhood.
Key Formal Elements:
- Variety rules in this post-modern collage
- Polychromatic color scheme
Make the Connection:
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?
There are many connections to the neighborhood...find the beaver, Hope Nichols, the train, a billiard...if you don't know about them, ask a local.
Peek around corner into the parking lot
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: This 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:
- Modeling or shading makes the face look three-dimensional
- Floating necklace creates a sense of implied motion in contrast to her intense stare and solid stance
Make the Connection:
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?
On the Left
Location: Gordon Street at Pecan
Artists: Scott Nurkin, Leandro Manzo, Georgie Nakima, Kat Sanchez-Standfield, Cheeks, Renee Cloud, De-Angelo Dia
Date: 2021
Media: Acrylic paint
Artists Info: Various
Story: Check out this cool alley. Stop here at the Gordon Street Murals project in the alley between Snug Harbor and the paint store. Different artists painted each section of the wall. This project was funded with CARES act funding and seeks to activate unused spaces and support our local artists.
Key Formal Elements:
- Scale of the Cheeks and Fiberess mural
- Warm colors of the Cheeks and Fiberess mural
Learn More
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 Avenue.
Continue down alley beside Snug Harbor
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:
- Large wooden boat is focal point for the image
- Visual texture in the mountain, sky, and sides of the boat
Make the Connection:
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?
On back of building along Pecan look up
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:
- Notice the asymmetrical balance of the text and the mural
Make the Connection:
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.
Cross Central turn right
Title: LA Vapors Mural
Location: 1521 Central Avenue
Artist: 1.4.4.0
Date: 2022
Media: Spray paint
Artist Info: @1.4.4.0
Story: 1440 is a nationally known, Los Angeles based artist that occasionally pops up in the SouthEast doing some murals. His other Charlotte mural is located at Can Jam in NoDa. 1440 works a lot of the major mural festivals and his style is quite diverse but his portraits done in realistic detail often steal the show. 1440 is a reference to the number of minutes in a day and to remember not to waste a single one.
Key Formal Elements:
- Cool colors of the table and background with warm color accents
- Highlights on each of the faces
Make the Connection:
Two things here. First, think about how hard it was for the artist to incorporate the gutter downspouts and windows of the existing wall in the mural and make it look seamless. Second, how fun would it be to play poker at this table!
Walk back to corner, cross Pecan
Location: 1429 Central Avenue on side wall of The Nook apartment building
Artists: Matt Hooker, Matt Moore with Tucker Sward
Date: 2017
Media: Acrylic Paint
Artist Info: @hookermedia, @puckmcgruff
Story: This massive mural on the side of an apartment building greets you with the formidable figure of Poseidon, the god of the sea in ancient Greek mythology.
Key Formal Elements:
- Primary color of blue on the left and primary color of red on the right meet in the middle and merge into purple tones
- Scale matters
Make the Connection:
The artists speak about using the primary colors of red and blue in a symbolic way. In their mural, the red and the blue combine to form purple. How might this be symbolic of the divided political environment of 2017? Of today? Also, the use of Poseidon from the ancient Greeks brings some relevance to a 2500-year-old culture. Why make that connection? What does that say about our culture today?
Continue through alley
Location: 1319 Pecan Avenue on side wall of former Providence Auto Service
Artist: Nick Napoletano
Date: 2017
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @napoletanoart
Story: This 250-foot wall mural starts on the far-right side of the building closest to Pecan and features a small girl holding a rod with fishing line. Follow the line to the left, and turn the corner to see the catch.
Key Formal Elements:
- Blue concentric circles create the illusion of movement in the water
- Line leads your eye to the surprising catch
Make the Connection:
Stand on the water bubble floating in the parking lot to see the perspective and optical illusion that make you question what is real.
** At some point a fence was p
Head to alley behind Midwood B'que
Title: Midwood Barbeque murals
Location: 1401 Central Avenue back alley
Artists: frogboyofficial, thedecism, thenakto, revise_d
Date: 2022
Media Spray paint
Artist Info: @frogboyofficial, @thedecism, @thenakto, @revise_d
Story: Mystery solved! Get ready to hear a story about some OG graffiti artists. While ArtWalks has documentation on the 2016 version of these murals in the alley, turns out those murals were not the first ones there. (You can still see the 2016 version in our Archives Section.) This group of graffiti writers, led by thedecism, have been painting these walls since the early 2010s. The property owner built the walls just for the artists to paint and occasionally the group gets together for a paint jam and puts new murals up.
Key Formal Elements:
- Classic use of outline around the characters
- Variety as a design element
Make the Connection:
The 2016 version of these murals had a Superheros theme. This time the artists celebrated some classic animated cartoon series. Check out the Scooby Doo inspired wall by frogboyofficial with the “Midwood Machine.” Who doesn’t love Scooby and Shaggy? In two walls, notice the classic combination of characters and wild-style graffiti lettering for which several of these artists are known. For a challenge, try to figure out what the lettering says!
Cross Central at light and find on the corner
Location: Clement and Central Avenue
Artist: Annada Hypes
Date: 2019
Media: Printed vinyl
Artist Info: @annadahypesart
Story: Through a Placemaking Grant from the City of Charlotte, the Plaza Midwood Neighborhood Association sponsored eight artists to cover utility signal boxes. 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:
- Primary colors of red and blue
- Use of outline
Make the Connection:
Artist Annada Hypes draws on her happy memories of walking around Plaza Midwood. She incorporates all the little details of her walks with rabbits, cats, birds, and leaves placing them on the background color of blue. Have you seen any of these on your walk today?