Start at the East/West Light Rail Station
Location: East/West Boulevard 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 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:
- Organic shape of the leaf contrasts with the strict geometry of the fence and tracks
- Repetition of patterns in the mosaics and windscreens
Make the Connection:
One of the design themes of the public art on the 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 the East/West station, Cassidy sculpted beech tree 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 image of a cotton plant on the windscreens, column mosaics and pavers. The growing of cotton and the building of cotton mills contributed to the industrialization of South End. Atherton Mill, located just down the tracks, was one of three mills owned by D.A. Tompkins and was the first industrial building in the street-car suburb of Dilworth.
Look for Concrete Reliefs on Platform
Location: East/West Boulevard Light Rail Station
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 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:
- Relief sculptural type, meaning the design projects from the background
- Texture
Make the Connection:
Again, it is nature. Working with the theme of indigenous trees and plant life, each pre-cast concrete mold is a different tree leaf. This station features the “Hornbeam” tree, which is a flowering hardwood tree with a pleated leaf and serrated edges.
Look for Water Basins on Platform
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:
- Texture of the bronze
- Repetition of the blossoms and inscribed lines creates unity
Make the Connection:
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.
At East Blvd, walk to intersection with South
Location: 176 East Boulevard
Title: Beautiful Utilities
Artist: Laurie Smithwick
Date: 2018
Media: Printed vinyl
Artist Info: @lauriesmithwick
Story: Through a South End Creative Lab Grant from Historic South End, the Amplify the Signal project sponsored eight artists to cover traffic signal boxes along South Boulevard. Local artist Laurie Smithwick was the project manager for this creative endeavor.
Key Formal Elements:
- Cool colors
- Outline
Make the Connection:
The Amplify the Signal project takes utilitarian boxes and turns them into art. Beauty meets function! The soft flowing colors of Smithwick’s composition reflect the flow of pedestrians through this area. Dynamic lines and circles perhaps suggests the constant movement of the light rail and automobiles.
Walk back to Rail Trail and walk right toward uptown
Location: 118 E. Kingston Avenue at Dilworth Artisan Station
Artist: Mike Wirth with Arko and Drew Newpher
Date: 2021
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @mikewirth, @arko.clt,
Story: Developer White Point Partners commissioned artist Mike Wirth to paint three walls of the building located at the Dilworth Artisan Station. Wirth is a community muralist, founder of the Talking Walls Mural Festival, and design faculty at Queens University. He worked with Arko and Drew Newpher for over a month painting this enormous project. 300 gallons of paint and primer, over 100 hours, many breaks to stop and talk to passers-by, and South End has an incredible new addition to the neighborhood.
Key Formal Elements:
- Scale makes the first impression
- Highly saturated pops of color make this mural stand out
Make the Connection:
This mural is all about history. Let’s start on the parachute side. The Dilworth Artisan Station building was one of the original mills located in the South End area. During WWI, the mill converted to making parachutes for the war effort. Find the landing zone and snap your photo so that you “nail your landing.” On the rail trail side, bottles of pop and gas bubbles celebrate the factory which manufactured carbonated sodas. On the third side, a multi-cultural Rosie the Riveter reminds us of the women who worked in factories of the past and today. At the far-right corner, a giant leg brings out the hosiery mill history and a certain holiday film classic. The oversized frame is a connection to the current and long-operating framing business still located in the building.
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Look at windows of Dilworth Artisan Station
Location: 118 E. Kingston Avenue
Title: "Life in Transit"
Artist: Kate Stewart with Holt School of Fine Arts students
Date: 2017
Media: Acrylic on aluminum panels
Artist Info: @katestewartfineart, @holtschooloffineart
Story: These murals are 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 Blue Line. Projects range from murals to sculpture, functional art to “yarn bombing,” and just about everything in between. The Dilworth Artisan Station houses studio space for many local artists and this project draws attention to the creative arts housed in the building. Lead artist Kate Stewart earned a BFA from Radford University and is a partner in the Holt School of Fine Art which offers art classes to children and adults.
Key Formal Elements:
- Repetition
- Warm colors of orange and yellow
Make the Connection:
An artist with a studio in the building, Kate Stewart, worked with students from the Holt School of Fine Arts to create designs for 20 aluminum panels installed in bricked-in windows on the façade. If you are walking during business hours, check out some of the artist studios on the 2nd and 3rd floor.
See stair railings, chalkboard, and roosters
Location: Charlotte Rail Trail
Title: "Kingston Connection"
Artists: NA
Date: 2015
Media: mixed media
Artist Info: @railtrailclt
Story: This is another Charlotte Rail Trail project. Working with the Charlotte Department of Transportation, the Kingston Ave Connection was constructed allowing for a new access ramp connecting the Rail Trail and the street. The creative stair railings were added in the color yellow to signify a Rail Trail project. The unique and varied projects along the Rail Trail are important placemaking tools. The chalkboard and the roosters are one of its first projects and are both spontaneous additions by architect David Furman. Furman is a prominent architect and developer and one of the driving forces behind the Charlotte Rail Trail and South End development.
Key Formal Elements:
- Unity provided by color yellow
- Variety of projects at this one location
Make the Connection:
The chalkboard and the roosters are examples of “guerilla art.” "Guerilla art" is a method of making art where the artist leaves anonymous art pieces in public locations.
The original prompt on the chalkboard was “Before I die I want to…” and a recent prompt is “I wish I had the courage to…” It is cleaned weekly and always full by a Monday morning. What do you wish you had the courage to do?
Walk along rail trail to Flower Child wall
Location: 1537 Camden Road
Artist: Matthew Willey
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @thegoodofthehive
Story: Asheville-based artist Matthew Willey painted this mural on the light rail facing side of Flower Child. This mural is part of his For the Good of the Hive initiative which seeks to create awareness about the importance of honey bees to our collective planetary health.
Key Formal Elements:
- Organic Shapes
- Implied motion
Make the Connection:
Willey is on a quest to paint 50,000 honey bees. 50,000 is the number of bees required to maintain a healthy hive. Willey started this act of gentle activism five years ago and he has painted over 5,000 bees so far. How has our connection to nature been represented by other art that you’ve seen in South End?
Also make sure that you check out SE Interactive by scanning the QR code to hear the story behind the mural. Click on the smiley face and use the selfie mode on your camera to play with a face filter. Then click the cube to play with a 3-D model.
Cross street and turn left on Camden
Location: 115 Camden Road
Artist: David Furman
Date: 2015
Media: Industrial machine parts
Artist Info: @centrocityworks
Story: This is another Charlotte Rail Trail project. The Charlotte Machine Co. was located on this site from 1925 until 2015. After it closed, parts from the factory were salvaged and reused in the making of this sculpture by architect David Furman. If you are walking during business hours, be sure to step in the lobby of 1616 Camden and check out the exhibition on the history of the site.
Key Formal Elements:
- Circular shapes
- Unity of yellow color for Rail Trail projects
Make the Connection
South End is one of the fastest growing residential areas of Charlotte. Small but defined projects like this sculpture make sure we remember our past even when confronted with our present.
Continue on Camden, look to the left
Location: East/West Boulevard Light Rail Station
Artist: Tom Thoune
Date: 2007
Media: Mosaic
Artist Info: @tom_thoune
Story: Thirty-three separate machine cog shapes make up this 360-foot long wall running along Camden Road. Thoune’s own hand-made pieces combine with donations of tile, china, and glass from members of the community. The artist was a resident at the McColl Center when he completed the work on this community-based project.
Key Formal Elements:
- Texture
- Variety
Make the Connection:
The different machine cog shapes relate to South End’s industrial past and inside each shape are many unique references to the area. Try looking for some of these images – depictions of Atherton Mill, cotton and magnolia blossoms, and various depictions of bottle trees. A bottle tree comes from African-American traditions and is often used to capture or ward off evil spirits. Thoune uses it several times to connect to stories of Dilworth and Wilmore. The artwork celebrates the everyday item in materials coming together to make a beautiful collective work of art that reflects this diverse community.
Walk down Design District Alley
Location: Design Center of the Carolinas Atrium along West Worthington
Title: "Confetti Hearts Wall"
Artist: Evelyn Henson
Date: 2018
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @evelyn_henson
Story: Commissioned by Asana Partners, a real estate development firm located in Charlotte, artist Evelyn Henson captures our hearts with her “painting happy art to brighten your day.” Henson's mural is always one of the top favorite murals in Charlotte and it is her first public art project. I’d say it is a wild success.
Key Formal Elements:
- Repetition
- Polychromatic color scheme
Make the Connection:
Instagram walls. Who knew we needed them. Here Henson makes a nice transition from her brightly colored more intimate scaled art to work on a large 40 square foot public mural and enter the arena of Instagrammable walls. Go ahead and take your selfie.
Also make sure that you check out the SE Interactive project by scanning the QR code to hear the story behind the mural. Click on the smiley face and use the selfie mode on your camera to play with face filters. Then click the cube to play with a 3-D model
In Nebel Alley
Title: “Women Who Lead”
Location: Nebel Alley
Artist: Dustin Moates
Date: 2022
Media: Spray paint
Artist info: @dstnmts
Story: Local street artist and muralist Dustin Moates was commissioned by Sharai Lavoie and Epic Notion marketing group to paint a mural honoring and inspiring women leaders. Lavoie was a nominee for the MW of the Year at the Leukemia and Lymphona Society and she coordinated donations for the mural. Moates is a founder of the Southern Tiger Collection, a group of street artists.
Key Formal Elements:
- Highlights on cheeks of realistic figure
- Focal point on the far right figure
Make the Connection:
There are couple artistic styles in this mural. For one, Moates is mostly known for his realistic portraits so the shading, highlights, and blended skins tones of the portrait on the right are a hallmark of his style. But the client wanted more flat, stylistic, shapes of color that represented figures of women who lead so you get both styles.
This mural is interactive. Step under the glowing crown and snap your pic as a “Woman Who Leads.”
Walk to the end of the Alley
Title: “Double Take”
Location: 100 W. Worthington Ave
Artist: Hilary Siber Edwards
Date: 2023
Media: Dichroic glass, fiber-optic cables
Artist Info:@hilary_siber
Story: Partnering with Lowe’s Tech Hub, artist Hilary Siber Edwards creates a six-story piece of public art stretching up the exterior of Lowe’s new building in South End. Curated by Art Pop Street Gallery and GoKotta, this sculpture marks a major collaboration of architecture, art, and design. A note about dichroic glass…it is glass that has been created to display two different colors in different lighting conditions.
Key Formal Elements:
- Scale
- Geometric forms
Make the Connection:
Edwards constructs an ongoing dialogue between technology, materials, and home in her sculptural installation. Enjoy the soft colors as they change during the day and interact with the sunlight. Notice the straight lines of the cables and try to get there in the evening when they light up. And catch the reflections of other landmarks in South End.
Walk to corner of Worthington and Hawkins
Title: “A Jaguar’s Spirit”
Location: 201 W. Worthington Ave
Artist: Valentin Ramirez
Date: 2023
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info:@deadfolks
Story: WOW. Emerging muralist Valentin Ramirez received a commission to paint this wall in South End and he nailed it. Ramirez’s second mural shows the depth of his talent with its beautiful imagery and symbolism. Ramirez uses spray paint for a lot of the larger areas of the mural but does detail work here with a brush.
Key Formal Elements:
- Symmetrical balance
- Visual texture in the flowers
Make the Connection:
Ramirez is inspired to share his Mexican heritage through his art. In the central image, a combination of a fearless Aztec warrior and jaguar makes a bold and powerful statement. The red gemstones and color represent blood and life. The turquoise color is a connection to jade which represents life and purity. Feathers are a symbol of status and respect.
At corner of Hawkins and the alley
Location: 1930 Camden Road, Design Center alley
Artist: Jen Hill
Date: 2020
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @2hills
Story: As you turn the corner into the Design District alley, color explodes from both ends and in the middle. At this corner on the façade of the Lilbelle shop, artist Jen Hill painted feathers lightly floating up the wall. Hill has another mural right around the corner on Tremont and some murals at Camp North End. Her art can be pop-art inspired, expressive with drips and splashes, and sometime bold with flat colors. Giver her a follow!
Key Formal Elements:
- Positive shapes of the feathers
- Color palette of intense warm colors and soothing cool colors
Make the Connection:
Celebrate colors with this fun mural! Hill takes the very simple shape of a feather and paints feathers effortlessly floating up to the top of the building. The feathers are grounded in the almost neon strips of color as the perfect contrast to the lightness of the feathers.
PRO TIP: Stand at the end of the ally and take in all the pops of color along the alley with this Hill mural, the Confetti Hearts mural, and the Depena mural at the end of the alley.
View from top of alley
Location: 1910 South Boulevard
Artist: Ivan Toth Depena
Date: 2019
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: @depenastudio
Story: Another Charlotte Rail Trail project, this mural covers the side of the parking garage at The Steelyard. Depena is a sculptor, painter, and public artist who teaches at Queens University of Charlotte. His work bridges art and architecture and embraces the intersection of technology and media. This is Depena’s second Rail Trail project. “Color Forest” is located at the uptown end of the Rail Trail. Both artworks reference color and movement.
Key Formal Elements:
- Cool colors with accents of warm colors
- Precise and analytical lines
Make the Connection:
In this abstract mural, Depena gives us two visual choices. The precisely painted geometric shapes in the background contrast sharply with the organic and flowing blobs of color dancing across the concrete wall. Perhaps the two opposing elements represent the straight lines and solid geometry of the former industrial site while adding the constant movement and fluidity of today’s society. Just a thought.
Walk to light rail crossing
Location: Camden Road and W. Tremont intersection
Title: Camden Signal House
Artist: Leigh Brinkley
Date: 2012
Media: Acrylic paint
Artist Info: Facebook @Brinkley-Design-LLC
Story: The signal house contains electronics that run the light rail. Designer Leigh Brinkley painted the utilitarian building to capture the quirky vibe of the neighborhood and provide some signage to announce South End.
Key Formal Elements:
- Curvilinear lines flow around the sides
- Complementary color scheme of red in the letters and greens on the walls
Make the Connection:
As a designer, Brinkley was inspired by textile patterns with the loose flowing lines that contrast so nicely with the straight lines of the railroad tracks and the straight lines of the buildings. Do you notice the patterns inside the letters atop the building?
Continue on Rail Trail
Location: Charlotte Rail Trail
Artist: David Furman
Date: 2019
Media: Wood and aluminum frame
Artist Info: @centrocityworks
Story: Architect David Furman often contributes works of art to the Rail Trail. Unexpectedly sometimes. Like this one which showed up in 2019. Furman has been creating work like this for years in his studio and this is a new work he designed by deconstructing two older sculptures to create a new one for this space.
Key Formal Elements:
- Monochromatic color
- Free-standing
Make the Connection:
Inspired by the work of American sculptor Louise Nevelson, Furman creates assemblages. An assemblage is art made by assembling or bringing together disparate elements – often everyday objects – to create a new work. While the variety of different shapes, negative spaces, and surfaces make your eye wander, the use of a single color brings unity to the work. Can you look closely at the work and find an object that looks familiar?