Let's Color Nashville

With Let’s Color Nashville, several companies, organizations, and artists came together to bring light back to the 2nd Avenue corridor.

Taylan Tekeli

June 9, 2021

2nd Avenue is Nashville’s Main Street

Our organization was founded 20 years ago, and for the past 17 years our home has been on 2nd Avenue N in Downtown Nashville. 2nd Avenue is special. Historically it had an important role under its former name, Market Street, where it held a myriad of businesses selling their wares at this destination location in close proximity to where goods were delivered on the Cumberland.

Much of that history is embedded in the bricks, the architectural facades of the buildings, and the overall energy of the tree-lined street. Those elements are what make 2nd Avenue people’s favorite street in Nashville. After working closely with the Mayor’s Office and the Planning Department to host a series of public listening and visioning sessions following the explosion it became clear that this was the case.

2nd Avenue is our Main Street and it is easy to see why. Even with the damage caused by the bomb, the beauty is still here. We can and we will rebuild an even more beautiful and functional street for all of Nashville, Middle Tennessee residents and visitors to enjoy and love for generations to come.

Healing Area After the Explosion

Public Art Shows Resilience

A major aspect of Public Art is to inspire people and bring them together, particularly during challenging times – to uplift and to bring feelings of hope and joy.

The goal of Let’s Color Nashville is exactly that – to help provide a spirit of reflection and joy to an area that was devastated by an act of senseless violence. While 2nd Avenue may take years to fully recover from the bombing, public art can have an immediate impact on helping the healing process for business owners and residents, as well as bringing together citizens across Nashville as we continue the public engagement process to envision the future of our most beloved street.

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Let's Color Nashville

Valentina Harper

Michelle Reeves

From her humble beginnings as an avid sketch artist and doodler curled up next to her father as he poured over his plans for his air conditioning business, Catron has spent the past twenty years as a painter, answering her inner call to create beauty and introspection that will eventually end up both inside and outside of homes and offices. An abstract artist working in a base of acrylic layered with other mixed media, she strives to create a piece that invokes the viewer to see something different every time they walk past it.

Valentina Harper

Heidi Schwartz

Troy Duff

Troy Duff is a graffiti and fine artist based out of East Nashville, Tennessee.

His passion lies in public art and a spontaneous creative process. Through graffiti, he pays tribute to the lost art of penmanship. It is how he became the creator of his own font.

Andee Rudloff

Andee Rudloff is a consultant and artist working predominantly in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Andee has more than 20 years of experience as a professional artist including exhibitions in Bowling Green, Ky., Nashville, Tenn., New York, N.Y., Taipei, Taiwan, and other national and international exchanges.

Andee Rudloff

Catron Wallace

Aaron Grayum

Nashville-based artist Aaron Grayum received his BFA from Middle Tennessee State University. His work has been published in The New England Review , Bartleby Snopes , Art Galleries & Artists of the South , Voyage Atlanta , and The Saturday Evening Post , as well as featured on the television show Nashville . Aaron was a 2018 participant in the Nashville Arts and Business Council’s PERISCOPE Artist Entrepreneur Training cohort, and won first place in the Periscope Pitch competition at Oz Arts Nashville . He lives and works with his wife and son just outside Nashville, Tennessee.

Aaron Grayum

Thaxton Waters

Valentina Harper

Elisheba Israel Mrozik

Elisheba Israel Mrozik is a Fine Artist and International Award WinningTattooist. She graduated from Memphis College of Art in 2006 with a BFA in Computer Arts. After moving to Nashville, TN in 2007, she began to work full time as a freelance artist in graphic design, anime, and fine art. Elisheba was a part of Nashville Black Artists Renaissance, and has shown at Columbia State, The Ha Factory, Boheme Collectif, Corvidae Gallery, and other venues. She was a New York Comic Con artist in 2010 and has created live murals at events with the Goo Goo Dolls in Buffalo, NY. Additionally, Elisheba has also been in various music videos and commercials like Old Dominion, Budweiser, and Yelawolf. Her work is currently on display at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville.

Elisheba Israel Mrozik

Thaxton Waters

Elisheba Israel Mrozik

Andee Rudloff

Heidi Schwartz

"The strokes of my paintings are composed of the colors, stories, emotions and life visible around me.

As a young girl growing up in Ohio, I would paint, draw, play around on the guitar and sing. I was, and am, a self-taught artist (seems to me, my style is impressionistic AND expressionistic -- but what do I know?). Not everyone understood what I was doing, including me -- I was kicked out of my high school art class. And music class."

Valentina Harper

Civic Design Center

Heidi Schwartz

Valentina Harper

After 15 years working as a graphic designer, Valentina Harper (formerly Ramos) started to create other arts and crafts. From these creations, Valentina Design was born: her world of fantasies and dreams; where her uplifting drawings and designs took shape.

In her Nashville studio, this Venezuelan artist spent countless happy hours playing with her paints and her Rapidograph pens . She enjoys working with different materials, but black ink is one of the mediums you will always find in her original prints, paintings and drawings. Her love for artworks with little intricate details are a signature of her own drawing style.

Troy Duff

Hoover Paint Store

Billy Martinez

Billy Martinez began his career in the early 90's as a freelance artist debuting his original comic series Wildflower in 1993 for Sirius Entertainment. Soon after he would write and illustrate books and stories for companies Peregrine Entertainment, Top Cow, Image Comics and Heavy Metal Magazine. In addition to his work in comics, he supplied artwork for Family Guy and Hellboy through Inkworks trading card company. In 1999 Billy formed Neko Press Comics and Publishing. The company went on to kickstart the careers of many up and coming artist and was a platform for Billy to continue to self publish his flagship titles Wildflower, Kickass Girl and graphic novels The Deepest Dark and his how to draw companion books In your Face and Body Movin'.

During this time Billy became interested in painting live at various clubs downtown in San Diego. There he would create 3 to 4 images simultaneously with bands and DJ's such as Z Trip and Red Sonya on stage. He would sell his finished pieces right on the spot. It was a new and fresh avenue to get more individuals aware of the art scene in the San Diego and Los Angeles area. Through the years his art has been featured for Starbucks Coffee Company and in various galleries throughout the United States. He currently instructs and teaches art classes that range from sequential art to fine art painting and continues to create murals and performs live art shows throughout the country. He currently resides in Nashville Tennessee where he performs live art in Nashville's historic Printers Alley and many venues throughout Music City.

Elisheba Israel Mrozik

Billy Martinez

Aaron Grayum

Troy Duff

No information provided

Niki Adams

Niki is a self-taught American artist. She is fascinated with the beauty that surrounds us every day. Colors and texture are the basis for most of her works. Being a true multi-media artist, experimenting with how different materials relate to one another, while keeping a balanced and fresh feel to every piece she creates.