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On a chilly day during Spring Break, Nathan Brown completed the first in a series of three new murals Madisonville will see in early 2023. As part of a greater Tennessee Arts Commission grant, Monroe Area Council for the Arts (MACA) engaged DMA-events to project-manage two of the three public art installations.

MACA’s mission is to promote, develop, and preserve cultural arts activities while reaching underserved populations, in particular the rural communities of Southeast Tennessee. “MACA aims to create such energy with this project that the local schools will bring students downtown to view the mural and [connect] the entire community through the art,” Dr. Laura Mason, president of the MACA Board of Directors, says. East Tennessee Foundation was also a patron of the project.

Brown drew inspiration from two local landmarks, the Lost Sea and Cherohala Skyway, and put his own unique spin on the interpretation, hand-mixing 58 colors to create a gradient wonderland of rolling hills, mountainous shapes and cave-like water features. “Dream Cloud” lives on Danny and Debbie Stricklan’s building at 228 Warren St. just blocks from the Madisonville square.

“I could stand in front of the mural all day long and see more shapes that make me think of elements of the Cherohala Skyway and the Lost Sea,” Dr. Mason says, adding that residents should keep their eyes open for other new Madisonville public art in the near future.

Brown says he had “an incredible time painting this piece in Madisonville” and walked away with many new local friends. “I feel like the whole city came by to say ‘hi,’ and I was excited to see this mural come together,” he says. “I wanted my design to reflect these places in my style in hopes people will recognize them and have their own takeaway from the mural.”

About the artist

A Chattanooga-based muralist, Nathan Brown has been painting his way across the South for more than two decades. Originally born in Los Angeles, he relocated to Nashville when he was 11 years old and embraced the transition between cities through painting graffiti and exploring new territories via skateboarding. Brown has long drawn inspiration from these passions, using color and form to play with perspective. Positioned at the intersection of abstractionism and street art, his work appears on multi-story buildings across the United States and Europe and on products like Rumpl blankets.

Brown has completed more than 100 large-scale commissioned murals for communities and brands like Red Bull, Wrangler, Patagonia, Top Golf, WeWork, Google and Spotify. His goal is always the same: to bring people, places and communities together through public visual art, transforming and creating new spaces where there were none before.

About DMA-events, Inc.

Journalists Kristin Luna and Scott van Velsor started 501(c) (3) DMA-events in May 2018 as a catalyst to provide free access to art to rural communities throughout the South, with over 40 large-scale murals successfully completed to date. In April 2021, DMA-event’s Walls for Women program was awarded the Daughters of the American Revolution’s state public relations and media award for commitment to historic preservation, education and patriotism consistent with the DAR mission.

All murals DMA has produced can be found here: http://bit.ly/DMAMuralMap. For more information, interviews and images, please contact DMA-events President Kristin Luna at kristinluna@gmail.com.

About Tennessee Arts Commission

The Tennessee Arts Commission offers a variety of distinct funding opportunities to encourage participation in arts activities in communities across all 95 counties. By purchasing an arts Tennessee Specialty License Plate, you are supporting organizations, schools, communities and public art projects like these across Tennessee.