A vivid work of art joins the ranks of several murals in Franklin and Williamson counties. But most people will have to look at it specifically.
On an early Friday morning in the fresh air of November, local artist Mike Cooper and his team of young artists finally dismantled the scaffolding used to turn the blank exterior walls into blooming murals.
The wall is located on the back of an industrial building, facing a new townhouse community, near Columbia Pike, just seconds from Franklin’s historic downtown Avondale Cottages.
"It's just a huge wall, 30 feet high and 120 feet wide. When you pull out the partition, you see this," Cooper said. "So (the developer) said let us do some interesting things for the residents on this wall.
"So this is good news. The bad news is that no one will see it...unless you drive there to see it."
Cooper has been painting large-scale murals for more than 30 years. After painting murals as a hobby for many years, he and his wife Mickie founded his company Murals & More LLC in 1990.
He was also the creator of the city’s beloved "Welcome to Franklin" mural on Hillsboro Road and a front mural on the West End building near Vanderbilt Stadium. Behind the artist, the mural was originally painted in 1992 to show the college coach.
This mural at Avondale Cottages, titled "Not an Ordinary Wall Flower," features native Tennessee flowers. His wife, a master gardener, helped pick the perfect flowers to focus on.
From right to left are purple cone flowers, blue lupines, white daisies, orange Siberian wall flowers and red Maltese cross flowers.
Cooper often incorporates trompe-l'œil technology into his murals, using realistic images to create optical illusions. In murals and works of art that span the region, state, and country, he uses the visual elements and textures of the surrounding environment of his works, and uses paint to create the illusion that his works seamlessly exist in the surrounding environment.
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"Trompe-l'œil means'fooling the eyes', using very three-dimensional things," Cooper said.
The murals at Avondale Cottages feature huge painted windows that open to the sky. Bright flowers bloom from the windows, as if they will eventually flow to the streets of the community.
This mural was commissioned by the Bristol Development Company to add a touch of color to the blank walls on both sides of the entrance driveway leading to the new 40-unit townhouse community.
"We try to add murals where and when we can," said Beau Daniel, assistant of Bristol Development Company. "We hope that the community will become a vibrant and energetic community where people are proud of it and live a happy life.
“It’s connected to an older residential area, and we envision people riding bikes and walking dogs there, and really participating and integrating into other parts of the community. Anything we can do to help blend the old and the new, we think it’s a great Things and murals are often a good way to do this."
Avondale Cottages is still under construction and will be opened in phases starting in January.
Cooper hopes that people will spare no effort to find his mural on the corner of Avondale Drive.
"It's not on the street. Not everyone drives past here every day," he said. "This is really a destination. If you want to see it, you have to drive to see it. It is buried.
"I thought it was an Easter egg. Suddenly it was there, you found it, and I think it makes it even more special."
Anika Exum is a journalist based in Williamson County, Tennessee. Contact her via aexum@tennessean.com, 615-347-7313 or Twitter @aniexum.
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This article originally appeared in Nashville, Tennessee: Flower murals in a new development near downtown Franklin, Tennessee
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