Just off Lynburn Drive and behind the Corner Cup Coffee, a man sits cross-legged on the pale concrete of Tucker’s new downtown model trail. He runs a paintbrush over the surface of the long retaining wall where it slopes downward, carefully spreading a white primer. Further up the trail, a group of young adults has paused in their walk to marvel at the chalk outlines that map out the future design. They point out the whistling bird that serves as a conductor, the beaver that rides in one train car—“the platypus” one calls it.
It's still a faint outline. The colored-in mural will be clearer.
It comes at the end of one long metaphorical road and the start of another. The City of Tucker has yet to establish an ordinance for public art, and this mural commissioned by the City serves as a first step in exploring that process. A study about our downtown alleys, completed in 2020, raised the opportunity for the inclusion of public art, and the City reached out to the Tucker community later that year for further input as part of the Art in the Alleys initiative in collaboration with Tucker-Northlake CID.
There are many benefits to public art. One of the most obvious is platforming via social media. Murals and the like make for social media-ready backdrops in photographs, which then serve as a discovery point and generate interest in the location. This can ultimately result in more visitors to the City and customers for our local businesses. Another is the opportunity to show off concepts and symbols that represent our community and its history, creating a visible, recognizable identity for Tucker.
Several years of cat-themed artwork inspired by local sights and events, much of which features his iconic kitten design, have built no small league of admirers for the artist of Tucker’s new mural. Rory Hawkins, known as Catlanta, brings with him a following of just under 6,000 fans on Twitter, 9,500 on Facebook, and 17,000 on Instagram. Its size speaks to his skill and strength of artistic vision, and more than a few of its members will likely be interested in exploring his newest piece in Tucker.
Hawkins’s design utilizes community iconography such as a train reminiscent of the railroad tracks that run through the City, and the Catlanta kitten, one of the train’s passengers, is painted into a Tucker Tiger. Other small references to Tucker events and locales are peppered throughout the bright, deceptively simple design.
Hawkins’ design was one of eight qualified submittals received from local artists. A selection panel consisting of the Tucker Middle School art teacher, the owner of Kaizen Collaborative, members of the Art in the Alleys steering committee and Friends of Tucker Path’s Board chose the winning design based on craftmanship, quality of design, the design’s suitability for the location and how well it reflects the themes listed in the bid--“play, creativity, and activity for all ages.”
Its location at the start of the model trail segment by Lynburn Drive ensures that the mural will be in close proximity to Main Street’s foot traffic; many people are likely to pass it as they walk, and part of it will be visible from Lavista Road, provoking interest from even more passersby.
Even the unfinished mural is grabbing pedestrian attention, and a few walkers even stop for a moment to watch Hawkins work. Each stroke of his paintbrush brings him one step closer to his vision for the piece and Tucker further into a more colorful future.
