Knoxville, TN
Crossing into Tennessee from Arkansas, we have officially traveled to every state in the lower 48 together in the RV! The owners of Nothing Too Fancy (Dustin & Lisa) had reached out to us about getting a Greetings mural on their screen print shop back in 2015 when we first started the tour. With the generous support of Visit Knoxville, we were able to finally make this project happen. It was a great way to celebrate officially being in all the contiguous states and it happened to line up perfectly with our travels.
Measuring 31' ft wide & 19' ft tall, this was the second largest mural we have worked on after Waterbury, CT. Our good friend Dominic Corry came down from New York for some assistance on this one because of our tight timeline. Thank you again for the help and doing an amazing job on the "I" (Sunsphere) and "L" (Tennessee Theater Sign.) Luckily, we painted right next to an awesome coffee shop, K Brew who kept us fueled for the nine days it took to complete the work. It was great to meet all the locals who stopped by the mural to chat. We really hope that this project opens up the opportunity for other mural projects in Knoxville!
We do our best to mix up our mural background color scheme, so they all look unique to the cities that they live in. For Knoxville, we wanted to go with a warm Spring time sunset with the lush greenery found in the nearby Great Smokey Mountains National Park. We’re huge fans of visiting and painting near national parks so this was another reason it was a perfect project for us.
During our time painting in Knoxville, we found out about the Home Depot Pro Xtra account which keeps track of all our paint color orders over time (assuming we are proactive about it.) They also offer discounts for large orders of paint over the year. Guess it's never too late to start and no need to keep holding on to those paint swatches that clutter up our RV.
The content that we painted in the mural was suggested by locals and directed by the Visit Knoxville team. We always work within the community to come up with authentic ideas. From our experience, we try to steer people away from anything too trendy as we want our murals to be timeless. The content should capture a snapshot of time in their city. However, we have no problem coming back in the future to update images inside the letters. This is another reason why our murals are so interactive and flexible to change with the times!
We use a lot of painters tape on our murals because we are usually working with Montana spray paint. Since the details within the letters are so small, it’s tough to freehand such thin lines. It’s quite the opposite of what a lot of people think when it comes to painting smaller. It actually becomes harder to paint, the smaller you go. When you paint extremely large, the mistakes are forgiven as long as you get your dimensions right. In our case, we have a mix of large (letters) and small (detailed images) so all the above is important to get right!
Our friend Dominic is originally from London and now lives in New York City so this was the first time he’s been in the South. He was very excited to try out some BBQ and get a first-hand sense of the culture in Knoxville.
A special thanks to Nothing Too Fancy for printing our first shirts as well. Check out the video below of them being made. They focus on using sustainable materials and water based inks. If you're in town, you should also check out their retail location downtown.
Press:
USA Today - Greetings from Knoxville: Mural part of national plan
Local 8 - The "Greetings from Knoxville" mural finished in North Knoxville
Letter Guide:
K — Tennessee River
N — Star of Knoxville Riverboat
O — Live Music Scene in Knoxville
X — Neyland Stadium, University of Tennessee
V — Neyland Stadium, University of Tennessee (cont.)
I — Sunsphere
L — Tennessee Theatre Sign
L — Dogwood
E — Dogwood (cont.) Mountain Biker on Trail
Year: 2017
Mural Size: 19'H x 31'W
Location: 1134 N Broadway, Knoxville, TN 37917