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- Well, we knew that we needed a mural trail
here in this area. [chuckling]
There's just so many artists to showcase,
and so much work to showcase.
And I'm not a logistics person, but I love art obviously,
and I love painting.
And my husband is a logistics person.
He is an engineer, and a web designer,
so he just put his heart to this,
and it worked out the whole system.
You can go directly to the murals,
open up your smartphone, and read about the mural.
And read about the artists that created it.
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♪
Right now, the Mural Trail
is really promoting postage stamp murals.
These are small murals,
usually like seven feet by four feet,
and they tell us a little story,
but there's a lot more detail in them.
You can get up close, and see all the colors,
and the strokes, and everything.
Like the mural here
at Park's Tavern, in Park Square, in Asheville,
that's three postage stamp murals put together.
But each panel tells a different story
of Shindig on the Green.
[instrumental music]
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, of course is the key figure there,
who originated a lot of the mountain music traditions
here in Asheville.
And of course, the final panel, is the one with the visitor.
The visitor so important to the Shindig.
In fact, I painted my husband and I into it.
We're sitting there watching the Shindig.
[chuckles]
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This is the Triangle Park Mural in downtown Asheville,
and it tells the stories,
and the history of the African-Americans of Asheville.
This is one of the sayings.
"Streets are homelands, and pockets are deeper,
"cause nobody thirsts when you're each other's keeper."
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West Jefferson is a good example of a mural town.
It was just a plain Jane in the beginning,
and once those murals started going up,
the town started cleaning itself up,
they started putting flower beds out on the streets,
and it's just turned into a magnificent little town,
and in a small community.
So murals can really uplift the spirit of a community.
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A very traditional mural is the fresco,
and it is just quite a process to create.
And Ben Long, here in this area,
has created quite a few frescoes along the way,
and we have some of those on the mural trail.
Those are a must-see.
- Move away from her mouth to the little,
a little bit that way.
Yep, there you go.
- [Together] One, two, three.
- One of the most popular one, is pretty obvious.
It's Dolly Parton.
- I'm Tara Marshall,
and I own Beauty Parade in West Asheville, North Carolina.
Dolly Parton is a Smoky Mountain girl,
and so I wanted to pay homage to her.
I would say on average,
there's at least five people a day.
Weekends, it could be 10 to 20.
And even I'll see shots where people have driven by,
and you can tell that it's from the street,
and they just wanna snap a shot.
So it's pretty fascinating.
- What I really love about murals
is they're for the public, and they're inclusive.
They include everybody, not just a select few.
[upbeat music]
- Look for murals all over the mountains,
thanks to the Appalachian Mural Trail.
To download the app, go to muraltrail.com.