Chapel Hill is seeing new, colorful art murals around town, with new installations having been recently finished or underway at University Place and Rosemary Street downtown.
“Forest Song”
A mural inspired by Chapel Hill’s forests and greenways was completed this week at University Place. Located on the exterior side of AT&T at 201 South Estes Drive, the mural is in partnership with University Place, Ram Realty, and the Town of Chapel Hill.
The piece by local artist Britt Flood features two mourning doves and a canopy of trees during sunset. It embodies themes of new beginnings, warmth, and connection, according to a release about the project.
Flood said the greenways have a positive impact on mental health, and she wanted to share art that embodied the feelings of protection and inclusion felt when walking under the shadows of the trees and songs of the forests.
“Daily nature walks are integral to my artistic process and provide a haven and sanctuary to endlessly explore, relax and reset,” the artist said in the release.
“O Lófos”
Another mural was also recently completed at the Chapel Hill mall, this time on the exterior of the new parking deck located at the 900 Willow apartment complex.
From Durham artist Gabriel Eng-Goetz, the large-scale artwork depicting the goddess Athena takes inspiration from Chapel Hill’s town seal and logo. The town has used the design since the 1930s, and the goddess symbolizes civilization, useful knowledge, noble reasoning, logic, and wisdom.
In his artist statement, Eng-Goetz said the design celebrates Chapel Hill as a historic town steeped in world-class education and multiculturalism.
“My hope is to inspire visitors, residents and patrons to experience the many cultural perspectives that Chapel Hill has to offer and reflect on how they have shaped society today,” the artist said in the statement.
The town’s Community Arts & Culture division commissioned the project last year, and the 47-foot by 150-foot mural faces the 900 Willow Drive apartment community.
To view a timelapse of Eng-Goetz’s work on “O Lófos,” click here.
“Columns of Rosemary”
A mural decorating the 125 East Rosemary Deck is set to be completed this week.
In July, the Town of Chapel Hill released a call for artists to decorate the corner column of “The Porch,” the street-level part of the parking deck which the town plans to activate with programming and pop-up retail. The deck opened in August and brought 1,100 parking spaces to downtown.
Soon to be painted across the parking deck’s columns are giant rosemary plants, which Chapel Hill artist Loren Pease said is a subtle play on the street’s name.
“I have really enjoyed watching people interact with it already because there’s so much pedestrian traffic here,” Pease told Chapelboro. “It’s been fun to watch people get excited about it and take pictures with it, and they’ve had lots of questions.”
The project is also in partnership with Community Arts & Culture and Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership.
“It’s almost done,” added Pease regarding the mural. “But I’m going to do little accents on each of the columns, so it’s like [the plants are] growing up the building and down the street.”