#9 TALKING WALLS

Artist Owl and Arko don masks to paint.
Their mural is in the entry to the
Mint Museum of Craft + Design

WHERE I WENT AND WHY...
I had wanted to go to the "opening" of Talking Walls at the Center City Campus of UNCC last week, but it was outside in the rain.  Later I found out that 2 of the murals were inside the gallery, so they may have moved it.  But the weather over the weekend was glorious and 17 murals were painted around the city.  I just visited the ones in the center city on my segway.

WHAT TO KNOW IF YOU WANT TO GO...
The murals I saw were all over the center city along Tryon, on a wall at Hal Marshall, and in the Mint Museum of Craft and Design and the UNCC-Center City gallery.  There are more in the other corridors of the city and I hope to visit them as I'm out and about on errands. Hopefully they will be around for a while.  Here is a map and addresses:

WHAT I SAW...
Organized by Queens professor Mike Wirth and Kevin Taylor, Talking Walls is an effort to put Charlotte on the Mural/Outdoor art map like Miami and LA.  They brought artists from Mexico City, Miami, Portland, New York, Brooklyn and Charlotte together for a weekend blitz of mural painting.  

The mural on the Hal Marshall building was closest to my house and I was able to watch it grow over 3 days.

One of my favorites is in an alley at 200 S. Tryon near Ruth Chris Steakhouse.  I wonder why the balloon isn't round.

I was a little disappointed that several of the murals were inside, making them a little less accessible to folks and more likely to be painted over as the galleries change.

These were at UNCC - Center City

This was painted by the artists at the top of the blog and is in the Mint.

These were by Spirit Square and on Trade Street

A festival was held Saturday afternoon and artists were invited to paint panels of which one will be selected to be the poster for the re-invention of Charlotte Shout next year.  This was my favorite, though most of the artists were just getting started when I was there.

Here are 2 others that had promise...

As I was taking my final walk to see the murals Monday morning, noticed a few others around town not associated with Talking Walls.  I love the one on the side of Connley's.  It has almost every symbol of Charlotte around.  And the "rug" by the Blue Line near the Convention center really makes you feel like the sidewalk gets "softer."

WHAT I LEARNED...
I truly enjoyed the murals with their variety of styles and subjects.  They truly make the Center City more vibrant.  I can't wait to encounter the ones outside the center city as I travel the city.  A few of the artists were not very friendly to talk to, but I just chalked that up to temperament!  LOL

I remember we used to have a mural on the old First Union (now Wells Fargo) building of a Hornet.  It got to be a joke around town.  As soon as a player was put on the mural they would get traded!  They finally just settled on Hugo the Hornet so that it didn't have to be repainted so often and then the team left for New Orleans!  Cam, I know you're an icon here, but I'd be nervous if I were you!!

IF MON$Y WERE NO OBJECT WOULD I PUT IT IN (OR ON!) MY HOUSE....
ABSOLUTELY... I think it would be great to have a mural on our "parge wall" that links our townhouses on 10th St. OR... we have several empty cement block walls at Park's Peak.  David was just asking me how he should paint them... mmm...

WE LIKED IT SO MUCH WE BOUGHT IT...
We have nothing in our collection close to the size of a mural!

Dave had just finished our patio downstairs before we went on an RV trip out to San Diego.  We found this tile piece called 2 Moons Over the City in old San Diego and have it outside on our patio.  It along with 2 sculptures compose our "yard art" as my mom used to say!