SoKno Rail Trail & Art Walk
Murals
ANNA CHARNEY
The mural is currently being painted on the back of the Kern’s Bakery building, at the entrance to the SoKno Rail Trail & Art Walk.
2201 Kerns Rising Way
Knoxville, TN 37920
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Charney is a painter and muralist of abstract pattern works. She received her BFA in painting/drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been living and working back in her hometown of Denver, Colorado since 2016. Her practice includes works on canvas, installation pieces, and indoor/outdoor murals on any scale (both in the private and public sector). Charney has exhibited in galleries and painted murals in the United States in Colorado, California, Illinois, Nebraska, Michigan, Missouri, , Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Florida, Alaska, Utah, Nebraska, and Texas and internationally in Costa Rica, France and England.
Charney’s optical paintings and murals are characterized by their expansive compositions, graphic dot patterning and dense detail. Through illusionistic deception, dynamic arrangements of detail and corresponding visual rhythms, Charney creates a sensational and immersive experience for the viewers of her paintings and installations. Using acrylic on canvas and aerosol on murals, she describes her illusionistic spaces and bending forms as “digital taffy”.
ABOUT THE ART
This site-specific design will reflect the artist’s signature abstract, pattern-based style while celebrating Tennessee’s rich botanical life. Embedded throughout the artwork will be stylized illustrations of flowers that are either commonly found throughout the state or hold a special place in Tennessee’s identity. These will include the Dogwood, Trillium, Common Milkweed, Blue Iris, Passionflower, and Tulip Poplar—the latter representing Tennessee’s state cultivated flower, state wildflower, and state tree.
SHINY OBJECTS BY NAOMI HAVERLAND
Shiny Objects is located on the back of the Kern’s Bakery building, at the entrance to the SoKno Rail Trail & Art Walk.
2201 Kerns Rising Way
Knoxville, TN 37920
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Naomi Haverland lives in Florida but enjoys spending her time traveling elsewhere to create images out of her imagination onto walls around the world. As a professional mural artist, Naomi’s primary goal is to install in image into an environment that will take the viewer by surprise with delight. Her secondary goal is to tell a story that will leave a lasting impact on the viewer.
One of Naomi’s favorite parts of the mural process is the preliminary research stage. She loves to become an expert on the subject matter she’s painting, as well as entrench herself into the culture surrounding the mural site. This helps her know what imagery will stop them in their tracks and be meaningful to them.
ABOUT THE ART
“I was drawn to fishing lures because they’re such unexpectedly beautiful objects. They’re designed to catch the eye, with reflective metals, vivid colors, intricate patterns, and shapes that mimic living things. Enlarging them to an exaggerated scale gave me an opportunity to really celebrate those details.
Fishing is also a familiar part of life in Knoxville and East Tennessee, so the subject felt connected to the place while still giving me room to approach it in a playful and unexpected way. I wanted to maximize the tromp l’oeil effect, painting the lures as dimensional objects hanging from the building and using strong cast shadows to make them feel like they’re actually suspended from the wall.
I love creating murals that make people look twice, and I hope this one turns something small and familiar into something surprising, beautiful, and a little larger than life.”
-Naomi Haverland
ABOUT THE CABOOSE
The anchor piece of public art has already been installed along the Trail — on a caboose next to Kern’s Bakery.
2201 Kern’s Rising Way
Knoxville, TN 37920
The caboose and mural were donated to the Art Walk by Pete Claussen and his family.
The caboose originally belonged to B. Ray Thompson, owner of Shamrock Coal Company, and for whom UT’s Thompson Boling Arena is named. In order to transport the coal, Thompson put together two trains. Legend has it that after a connecting railroad repeatedly lost some of his rail cars, Thompson painted every one of his engines, cars and cabooses the distinct Shamrock green color.
ABOUT THE ARTIST - EMMANUEL JARUS
The mural was created by Canadian-born artist Emmanuel Jarus, whose work is inspired by the visual human experience and reimagines how art can exist in public spaces. Over the past decade, Jarus has collaborated with communities around the world to create large-scale portraits and figures on walls and other surfaces.
His artwork on the caboose is especially fitting as his first foray into art at age 19 was painting graffiti on the side of railroad cars.
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