ArtSpark - Round 1

First Festival

5TH & BROAD

Mike Ayers From Chattanooga, TN

First Festival boasts a positive, magical future where technology, humanity, and the natural world are all still in touch. Each of the characters and creatures are a reflection of the details I see in the people, the places, and the daydreams that exist here in the city. All of us are headed into the future together and it's important to value harmony amongst the change.

Cat Box

5TH & MARKET

Tara Hamilton From Chattanooga, TN

Colorful and fun with quirky patterns and bright colors, Cat Box brings a smile to your face and an object with hashtag-abilities (the internet loves cats).

Down Steam

6TH & BROAD

Tara Hamilton From Chattanooga, TN

Showing people of different sizes and color utilizing the beautiful outdoor spaces of Chattanooga, Down Stream highlights the fun, ever present outdoor opportunities in Chattanooga and the diversity of our beautiful city.

Unexpected Aquarium

7TH & MARKET

Keith Finch From Rossville, GA

Leveraging Chattanooga’s Riverfront and the popular Tennessee Aquarium, Unexpected Aquarium seeks to engage viewers of all ages by placing a unique aquarium in an unexpected part of our city. By referencing the cornerstones of the downtown area – the river and the Tennessee Aquarium, it makes sense to look back at the catalysts of the downtown resurgence as a source of inspiration.

Tivoli

8TH & BROAD

Allen Hampton From Chattanooga, TN

A photograph of an original small painting, Tivoli is a nod to the adjacent Tivoli Theater. The design expresses dancing, rhythm, music floating in the air and spotlights.

Water and Stone

8TH & MARKET

Amanda Brazier From Rossville, GA

Water and Stone speaks of the beauty of the land we call home and also of the changes, both rapid and gradual, that this land has experienced. All of the colors displayed in the design are from rocks and clays gathered within a 20 minute drive of Downtown Chattanooga. The design was created with handmade watercolors; this fluidity references the Tennessee River, a continually changing part of our environment. The colorful layers suggest strata of rocks, or perhaps even our mountainous landscape. The mountains and rock are the slowly changing, ancient observers of Chattanooga’s development as a city. The goal of Water and Stone is to quietly capture the viewer’s attention, facilitating a relationship between the land and the city, prompting the community to think about where we have come from and where we are going.

The Handshake

MLK & BROAD

Brian Behm From Chattanooga, TN

The many colors in this design are indicative of our city’s diversity, and here they come together to form something cohesive and beautiful. I believe a healthy city must recognize and respect its diversity and honor its peoples' histories, stories, traditions, experiences, and needs. This is an especially important message to be conveyed through public art because the medium has the opportunity to speak to every type of individual—no matter their age, race, income level, orientation, gender, marital status, religion, or any other line we draw between ourselves and others. No matter who the viewer may be, public art is accessible.

In an increasingly divided cultural and political landscape, this design reminds passersby to offer a warm hello to a neighbor, or to offer a helping hand to those in need. It encourages us to welcome the outsider, comfort the hurting, and listen to those who may seem dissimilar to ourselves. It reminds us that fighting is not a solution to our differences, because before we can shake hands, we must first open up our fists.

Green, Blue and Content

MLK & MARKET

Claire Vassort From Rising Fawn, GA

The waving grass blades symbolize the soothing effect the color green has on our mood, in the city, in the country or even inside buildings… so why not on the streets of Chattanooga?

Technicolor Children

MLK & GEORGIA

Josiah Golson From Harrison, TN

Technicolor Children is an image inspired by the vibrancy, beauty, and strength of Chattanooga’s many communities. By connecting floating figures in a color spectrum, the design wraps these individuals around the signal box, telling a story of connecting individuals and a strong, united community and culture. The suggested movement of the figures intends to both inspire and complement the public movement and sense of color in the street, while also giving light to an internal sense of pride and ascension.

Battanooga

10TH & BROAD

Katie Claiborne From Chattanooga, TN

Inspired by the gray bats that live locally in natural limestone caves, Battanooga highlights regional interest in caving as well as an endangered species that live in our area. The color choices and marks are bold and expressive rather than naturalistic. The intent is to bring attention to the animal, but to do so in a way that pays homage to street art/DIY traditions

Roland

10TH & MARKET

Kevin Bate & Steven Llorca From Harrison, TN

Roland Hayes was an American lyric tenor and composer. Hayes was born in Curryville, Georgia on June 3, 1887, to Fannie and William Hayes. Roland's parents were tenant farmers on the plantation where his mother had once been a slave. When Hayes was 11, his father died and his mother moved the family to Chattanooga.

Hayes opened doors for African-American concert and opera performers and elevated Negro spirituals (referred to by Hayes as the “Afro-American Folk Songs”) to the classical level, singing them in concert with operatic arias. After studying at Nashville’s Fisk University, Hayes performed at Carnegie Hall and Boston Symphony Hall. In 1939, he recorded with Columbia. He toured the United States and Europe and performed for King George V and Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace. At the height of his half- century career, Hayes was one of the world’s highest paid singers. He made a number of recordings and published a book of his favorite spirituals entitled, “My Songs.” With the exception of the Roland Hayes Auditorium, this box is the only other reference to this famous Chattanoogan in our city.

Urban Botanicals

11TH & MARKET

Anna Carll From Chattanooga, TN

Embracing the constant push/pull between urban or human made civilization and the natural world, Urban Botanicals are an exploration of architectural structure and botanical shapes—elements of nature that constantly work their way into the nooks and crannies of brick, stone, metals or concrete to create urban botanical abstracts of their own.