Murals
When Jay and Ellen Heavilon purchased the rundown space for the gallery in October of 2009, the building was tagged. It gave Ellen the idea to find those kids and “give them a canvas”. After saying this to Frances McDonald, the founder of Mark Making, the idea of a revolving community mural and partnership began. In October of 2010 Mark Making brought in a California hip-hop, graffiti artist for a four-day workshop/community-based discussion about graffiti and ended with the first mural at 110 East Main St. called “Breathe”. Since then, approximately every six months a new piece has been done by the community.
Going Home-Nearly 60 incarcerated women collaborated with Mark Making teaching artists to create this stunning mural, a meditation on freedom, hope, and belonging. Birds take flight across Chattanooga's landscape, their wings imagined piece by piece through patient artmaking. Flowers by Hart Gallery artists and community participants anchor the foreground. This powerful work, born from longing and transformation, reminds us: home makes room for everyone.
Awakening– Another mural of the Painted Garden series inspired by the work of the late Dennis Palmer, Awakenings was created by teens from CADAS to beautify the Hart Gallery in the Southside neighborhood of Chattanooga. Mark Making challenged the teens to step out of their comfort zone to create drawings of plants built out of patterns. Drawings were incorporated into a collage which was enlarged. The teens painted by parachute cloth sections which were later adhered to the building. The mural stands as a memorial to Dennis Palmer, a testimony to the teens’ courage to create a new life, and as a message of hope to others affected by substance abuse.
Calaveras – celebrates Chattanooga’s Latino residents and culture.
To create Calaveras, Mark Making paired 12 Latino students with 12 Spanish language students in professionally led visual arts and civics classes. In the tradition of Day of the Dead, students studied visual art and design tools to create sugar skull designs to honor their ancestors. Lead Artist, Jas Milam was responsible for the mural concept, class curriculum, and onsite painting.
Mark Making partnered with Hart Gallery of Tennessee, Boyd-Buchanan School, Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy, La Paz Chattanooga, and Spark to create this culturally engaging mural.
Help, Share, Love – Twenty-two 3rd through 5th graders from Battle Academy (our neighborhood school) were chosen to participate in this mural. For two days after school they attended a workshop facilitated by Carl Guerra, art teacher, where they talked about what it meant to help, share, and love. After learning various techniques for the applications they took their words and painted them on a heart which would then be placed on the mural. That Saturday the children along with Ms. Guerra and the Mark Making staff attached the hearts and painted the surrounding mural.
CARE – (October 2011) “Care” was designed by local graffiti artist, SourOne, to bring attention to homelessness during the cold winter months. Inside of the word ‘care’ are pictures of clients from the Chattanooga Community Kitchen. Mark Making and Hart took photos of the clients, made printed copies then facilitated workshops where they were asked to really show us something about themselves. They could take their picture and change it up to express who they were, not what they looked like for that second the camera captured.
UrbanH♥ARTbeat – (April 2011) A local high school student was chosen to create his vision for Urban H♥ARTbeat. Once the letters were in place members of the community were invited to participate by adding their own visual ideas in a triangle creating this mural.
Breathe-(October 2010) Breathe was born out of the need for the community to come together and “breathe”. Graffiti when invited can be a beautiful art form and this first mural was just that.