SoKno Rail Trail & Art Walk
The SoKno Rail Trail & Art Walk is a 3.8-mile rail-to-trail project connecting Chapman Highway to Ijams Nature Center. The Art Walk will be a vibrant 1.5-mile segment of the trail, from Chapman Highway to Island Home, integrating art, nature and recreation into an accessible experience for all. Specially commissioned art pieces will showcase works by local, regional and nationally renowned artists.
The SoKno Rail Trail and Art Walk is a project by Legacy Parks Foundation in collaboration with Gulf and Ohio Railway, City of Knoxville and Dogwood Arts.
Rail Inspired
Rail inspired features will be used along the trail to honor the history of the rail corridor.
Pocket Parks
The Rail Trail will feature two trailheads at each end of the trial and four pocket parks along the Art Walk.
Points of Interest Along the Trail
HAPPENING NOW
BY ANNA CHARNEY
The mural is 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.
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