Location: Bland Street Light Rail Station
Artists: Shawn Cassidy, Leticia Huerta
Date: 2007
Media: Steel and Aluminum, acrylic, tile, pavers
Artist Info: www.leticiahuerta.com
Story: Federal Transit Administration Circular 9400.1A encourages the inclusion of art in transit systems. According to the circular, "Good design and art can improve the appearance and safety of a facility, give vibrancy to its public spaces, and make patrons feel welcome." In other word, design matters. For the LYNX Blue Line, up to 1% of design and construction costs was set aside to create public art. CATS Arts in Transit program hired artists as part of design teams. The resulting art is often functional, and integrated into the architecture.
Shawn Cassidy, a professor of art at Winthrop University, designed the leaf patterns for the station track fencing. Artist Leticia Huerta designed the windscreens, column mosaics, and the paving pattern on the platform.
Key Formal Elements:
One of the design themes of the public art on the LYNX Blue Line is a focus on nature. Cassidy fabricated 40 sculptural leaves to be inserted into the track fencing. A different species of tree that is native to this area is featured at each station. At Bland Street, Cassidy sculpted oak leaves. Look closely at the leaf. The interior vein pattern is a street map showing the location of the station and its surroundings. Can you find your spot on the leaf?
Huerta uses the familiar image of a rose. Rose vines intertwine on the windscreens and rose blossom appears on the column mosaics. Can you see roses on the paving pattern?
Location: Bland Street Light Rail Station
Artist: Hoss Haley
Date: 2007
Media: steel and concrete
Artist Info: @hosshaley
Story: Asheville-based artist Hoss Haley designed the large seat along the edge of the platform.
Key Formal Elements:
Haley titles his work “River Rock,” as though it is a rock sculpted to softness by centuries of rushing water. Much of his work requires the viewer to question what they know about the material they are viewing and how they think that material looks. His work transcends the material of steel and concrete, and creates a weightlessness that suggests you could pick it up and toss it into a river.
Location: Charlotte Rail Trail beside Bland Street Station
Media: 12 LED Lights
Story: This is a Charlotte Rail Trail project. The Charlotte Rail Trail is a public/private venture that sponsors a variety of unique projects along the 3.5-mile-long walkway of the LYNX Blue Line. Projects range from murals to sculpture, functional art to “yarn bombing,” and just about everything in between. This project was funded by both Duke Energy and Beacon Partners and consists of the powerstation and the tower. See it at night, where according to the team that created it, there are 16,000 color possibilities.
Key Formal Elements:
Light art is its own genre of art. While experimentation with light is integral to photography and video art, light art became a dedicated art form in the 1970s largely due to the pioneering work of artist James Turrell. In this location, the light art compensates for the unfortunate location of necessary infrastructure, and enlivens the area at night. While watching the light show, make sure you turn your gaze back to uptown and experience the lights of Charlotte’s skyline.
Location: Charlotte Rail Trail near Park Condos
Title: Pre-Historic South End Brontosaurous
Artist: Amy Hart
Date: 2016
Media: Found metal
Artist Info: www.amyhartdesign.com
Story: Another Charlotte Rail Trail project, this sculpture was funded by a private donation and a Historic South End Place Making Grant with the support of the Park Condos HOA. Amy Hart is a “found object sculptor.” She has a BFA from Syracuse University in Surface Design and Metalsmithing.
Key Formal Elements:
Found objects in the history of art are associated with the French term, “object trouve.” This creative endeavor applies to art that is made from products not normally considered as art materials. Pablo Picasso, early in his career, and then Marcel Duchamp with his series of “ready-mades,” were pioneers in found object art. What found objects can you see in this sculpture? Why do you think this artwork is affectionately known as “Bicycle-osaurus?”
Location: Bland Street Light Rail Station
Title: Bland STreet Concrete Reliefs
Artist: Alice Adams
Date: 2007
Media: Molded concrete
Artist Info: www.aliceadamssculpture.com
Story: Renowned public artist Alice Adams was hired by CATS Arts in Transit as a lead designer for the LYNX Blue Line. Her contribution here is the design for the reliefs on the cheekwall. The cheekwall is the low wall that separates the station platform from the light rail tracks.
Key Formal Elements:
Again, it is nature. Working with the theme of indigenous trees and plant life, each pre-cast concrete mold is a different tree leaf. All South End stations feature the “Hornbeam” tree, which is a flowering hardwood tree with a pleated leaf and serrated edges.
Location: Bland Street Light Rail Station
Title: "Fowler Porch"
Artists: David Furman, Centrocity Works, Fabrication by Ben Parrish, Steel Design Studios
Date: 2018
Media: steel
Artists Info: @centrocityworks, @steeldesignstudios
Story: Another Charlotte Rail Trail project, "Fowler Porch" was funded by Beacon Partners, the owners of the adjacent Fowler Building. This project consists of a see-saw and the sculptural fence hiding the parking lot.
Key Formal Elements:
Go ahead, sit on the see-saw. You know you want to.
Location: Bland Street Light Rail Station
Artist: Nancy Blum
Date: 2007
Media: Bronze
Artist Info: www.nancyblum.com
Story: Nancy Blum, accomplished artist and recipient of the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Grant, created these whimsical water fountain basins. As part of CATS Arts in Transit, Blum designed these 18-inch diameter cast bronze basins as functional water fountains. They are installed at 13 light rail stations on the Blue line.
Key Formal Elements:
The design of the water basins is based on dogwood tree blossoms. The flowering blossom of the dogwood tree was designated as the North Carolina state flower in 1941. Its white or pink blossoms are incredibly common throughout our area during spring. The inscribed background design is based on the mathematical Fibonacci sequence, found in a variety of trees and flowers, and generally of a spiral nature.
Location: 1507 Camden Road
Title: "Home Away from Home"
Artist: Naji Alali
Date: 2020
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @najiarts
Story: This mural is sponsored by Brand the Moth and their META Mural Artists Residency Program. Brand the Moth is a non-profit organization creating community based public art projects and supporting emerging artists with the META residency opportunity. Naji Alali is an artist from their second residency program.
Key Formal Elements:
Home can be anywhere. Alali’s message in this six-paneled mural is an homage to home and belonging. In his upper panels, the artist depicts grandparents as a suggestion to honor our ancestors. Objects, photos, and submissions from friends are compiled together to create the middle windows. And lastly, the artist includes items from his own home in Charlotte and his family’s home in his home country of Jordan. What single object in your home would you have painted in a mural?
Location: 1507 Camden Road at the Powerhouse
Title: "Dream Keepers"
Artist: Yuriko Yamaguchi
Date: 2007
Media: Bronze
Artist Info: www.yurikoyamaguchi.com
Story: Artist Yuriko Yamaguchi is a professor of studio art at George Washington University and an accomplished contemporary artist. For CATS Arts in Transit, she created four small bronze sculptures which are attached to the top of a short wall running parallel with the Powerhouse building.
Key Formal Elements:
Here the artist is interested in giving you a familiar object at first. But as you begin to examine the pieces, they start to seem ambiguous and you are left trying to figure out exactly what they are. What about each piece makes it seem familiar? What makes it mysterious?
Location: 1507 Camden Road at the Powerhouse
Title: "Branch Lines"
Artist: Norie Sato
Date: 2010
Media: Painted stainless steel with LED lights
Artist Info: www.noriesato.com
Story: Artist Norie Sato is a Seattle-based public artist who creates context-driven, site-specific artworks. This project was funded by the Arts & Science Council, the Public Art Commission and the City of Charlotte. A pair of sculptures each with three graceful intertwined steel poles are topped with short sections of railroad tracks and circular tracks.
Key Formal Elements:
Charlotte is known as the City of Trees. According to www.treescharlotte.com, the public passion for our tree canopy has led the organization to set a goal of 50% tree canopy coverage for our city. This support of trees goes back to the planning efforts led by urban designer John Nolen who incorporated trees in his early 20th century plans for the area. While using the form of a tree, Sato creates conflict by adding the industrial train tracks of progress. She creates balance in her sculptures, but can our city find that balance in our modern growth efforts?
Location: Intersection of Camden Road and South Tryon Street
Artists: Hollis Austin, Mark Doepker, Elizabeth Palmisano and ACSM Inc.
Date: 2018
Media: Wood
Artists Info: @austinlettering, @markdoepker, @ellafaeart, www.acsminc.com
Story: This collaborative public art project and signage was commissioned by Beacon Partners. Utilizing an old sign, the developers worked with Historic South End to find artists who were able to turn the sign into a marker for the neighborhood and art.
Key Formal Elements:
The artists used old street maps of the area and compared them through different growth eras. Many changes have occurred beginning with the underground mining that took place in the Gold District, to the early streetcar suburb days, to the explosion of residential and business growth happening now. Through those changes, the main structure of the area has remained the same.
Location: 1414 South Tryon Street
Artist: Osiris Rain and Swych
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @osirisrain, @swych19
Story: This project is located on the tall interior wall of the RailYard Lobby. Take a peek inside as the lobby is open most hours. Developed by Beacon Partners, this mixed-use urban building connects to Charlotte’s rail road history. You can even see a trestle bridge form used above the lobby as a connector between the two towers.
Key Formal Elements:
While Osiris Rain has murals all over other areas of Charlotte, this is the first Rain mural in South End. Here the artist collaborated with graphic artist Swych. Sywch is known for his “wild style” graffiti but here he delights with colorful “bubble style” lettering forming the background of the work. Rain departs from his typical style of humanistic portraits and adds the butterfly as a focal point. Perhaps the butterfly is symbolic of the transformation of South End. How many references to Charlotte can you make out in the graffiti?
Location: 1411 S. Tryon Street
Artist: Matt Hooker, Matt Moore
Date: 2020
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @hookermedia, @puckmcgruff
Story: Matt Hooker and Matt Moore, arguably the most prolific and well known of our hometown muralists, completed this mural for the Brickyard, a popular pub in South End. If you weren’t a fan of the Buffalo Bills murals on the left, then now you have a new mural to cheer for on game day.
Key Formal Elements:
· Symmetrical balance
· Highlights everywhere
LUUUUUKE! Luke Kuechly, Carolina Panther’s linebacker, No. 59, youngest recipient of the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award, retired from football in January 2020. As Charlotteans went into collective mourning, the Brickyard owner knew what to do. Over about a 3 to 4 day span, the Matts started painting, fans stopped by, and then even Luke Kuechly stopped by for a visit. The perfect way to say thank you and #KeepPounding.
Location: 1411 S. Tryon Street
Artist: Skott Marsi
Date: 2018
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @skottmarsi
Story: Dubbed the #1 Bills and Michigan Bar in Charlotte, NC, the Tavern on the Tracks covers their side wall with a large mural by Miami-based artist Skott Marsi.
Key Formal Elements:
Football. Charlotte. Bar. It all goes together. The large crown of the Queen City dominates the side wall while the mascot for the Buffalo Bills rushes in from the side.
Location: Along the Rail Trail between Bland and Carson
Title: "Color Forest"
Artist: Ivan Toth Depena
Date: 2018
Media: Aluminum poles in concrete
Artist Info: @depenastudio
Story: Another Charlotte Rail Trail project, this work consists of 100 colored aluminum poles of various heights anchored along both sides of the Rail Trail. Depena, an artist working in public art with degrees in architecture and art, teaches at Queens University of Charlotte. His work is multimedia and embraces the intersection of technology and media.
Key Formal Elements:
As you make your way through the poles, you become aware of how many ways there are to experience this artwork. You can experience this artwork very slowly, and as you walk and approach the poles, different colors slide into and out of view. If you are running or commuting on a scooter, you will have an entirely different experience of the artwork. If you whizz by on the light rail, the colors blend together completely.
Location: 213 E. Palmer Street
Title: "Edna's Porch"
Artist: David Furman, CentroCity Works
Date: 2016
Media: Steel
Artist Info: @centrocityworks
Story: “Edna’s Porch” is another Charlotte Rail Trail project. Architect and urban planner David Furman and his @centrocityworks spearheads some of the work on the Charlotte Rail Trail. His support of South End growth has been central to the success of these projects.
Key Formal Elements:
The Carson Boulevard light rail station is the “front porch” of the South End area, because it is the first station outside of center city. Furman uses the concept of a porch as inspiration for this seating area and gathering place and adds a twist by deconstructing the porch. Inspired by his grandmother’s porch, Furman inverts the traditional gable of a porch and constructs benches with rounded seats. Perhaps this is a nod to the combination of old and new, historic and modern, in South End. Have a seat and enjoy the view from the front porch of South End.
Location: Carson Boulevard Light Rail Station
Artists: Shawn Cassidy, Leticia Huerta
Date: 2007
Media: Steel and aluminum, acrylic, tile, pavers
Artist Info: www.leticiahuerta.com
Shawn Cassidy, a professor of art at Winthrop University, designed the leaf patterns for the station track fencing. Artist Leticia Huerta designed the windscreens, column mosaics, and the paving pattern on the platform.
Key Formal Elements:
At the Carson Boulevard station, Cassidy sculpted magnolia leaves. Look closely at the leaf. The interior vein pattern is a street map showing the location of the station and its surroundings. Can you find your spot on the leaf?
Huerta draws upon the history of this area for her integrated station art. The Carson station is close to the Gold District of South End, named after the discovery of gold and the operation of gold mines in the area during the 1800s. Within the theme of gold mining, look for the small “gold nuggets” on the platform and the gold color on the column mosaics. The process of gold mining is her subject matter on the wind screens. Can you spot the water, as well as the reference to panning for gold?