As many of you already know, I am a big mural and street art enthusiast. In 2024 I took well over 500 photos of murals on my various road trips through about 15 states. This will be my first post of three or four mural posts, with this one focused on my most favorite finds in the year. I am always amazed at the creativity of mural and street artists. There is so much out there and such a variety of art to be found. From unique graffiti to massive portraits of famous people to representing history in art. There is seemingly no end to what can be found in even the smallest of towns to the corners of big cities. I was overly impressed by both the number of murals and the quality of art on Oklahoma City. It was absolutely amazing. Then, as one drives through every small town along Route 66 in Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma, there are so many pieces that focus on that historic highway. I also found myself diving deep into the art work in Brenham, Texas. So, without further adieu, here are my favorites from 2024.
WILLIE NELSON MURAL – HILLSBORO, TEXAS
I would have to say that perhaps my favorite mural is this huge one of Willie Nelson in Hillsboro, Texas. I may love rock and roll, but I have always been a Willie Nelson fan — since the 1970s. This mural on the side of a building and is pretty large. Below are two different shots of it for perspective. Located on the corner of Franklin and Waco Street behind the Old Corner Gulf Station, this mural was painted by Juan Velazquez from Dallas, Travis Avila from Fort Worth and Art Mando form Dallas. This was apparently commissioned as a thank you to Willie who helped rebuild the Hill County Courthouse after it burned down. In this image he is actually looking at the courthouse. It was completed in January 2024, so is a very new mural.
OWL FAMILY – BRENHAM, TEXAS
Brenham, Texas is full of some very unique murals. But my favorite of the many murals is the Owl Family by Riverside, California artist Jeff Soto. This four-story tall mural was done in 2017 and Soto completed it in three days. It is on the back of the JH Faske Building at 014E. Alamo St. in Brenham.
BALD EAGLE AND WHITE-TAIL DEER – CLAY CITY, KENTUCKY
I am a huge fan of Colorado artist (and formerly from Kentucky) Alexandrea Pangburn. She is a prolific artist that focuses mainly on realistically depicting wildlife. Alexandrea completed this mural in Clay City, Kentucky in May 2024 and I had to get down there as soon as I could to see this masterpiece. Clay City is near the Red River Gorge and members of the community are avid hunters. This mural not only includes the buck (a shout out to the hunters) and the eagle (a shout out to the veterans), but also showcases wine grapes and wheat as a nod to the wineries and the famed Kentucky Bourbon. This mural was the first of her “Novel Mural Project” which is her way to give back to the smaller communities of Kentucky. She plans on donating one mural to a small Kentucky town each year. She has plans on May 2025 of installing a new one in Sharpsburg, Kentucky and then her third installation will be in May 2026 in Jackson, Kentucky.
SUMMER OF 66 MURAL – OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA
Road tripping is my thing and visiting the many iconic sites along Route 66 has provided a few fun adventures. Nick Bayer is a multimedia artist from Piedmont, Oklahoma and the owner of CreateCo Studios also in Piedmont. This is a huge and very colorful mural that includes many of the iconic attractions on Route 66. It requires a few photos to get the entirety of it.
URANUS FUDGE FACTORY MURAL – RICHMOND, INDIANA
In late 2024 the Uranus Fudge Factory opened up their third shop in a large 12,000 square foot building. As part of the design a huge mural featuring bees, flowers and aliens was painted on the side of the building. Very colorful and fun. This 800 square foot mural was completed in late 2024 by artist Christina Hollering from Indianapolis, Indiana. The planet Uranus is featured along with the always present alien-themes found in all three of the Uranus Fudge Factories (Route 66 in St Robert, MO, off of Interstate 69 in Anderson, Indiana and the newest at Route 40 and Interstate 70 in Richmond, Indiana. The bees symbolize UFF owner Louie R. Keen’s efforts to raise pollinators on his acres of land. They even sell his honey in their stores.
THE TATTOO WOMAN – NORMAN, OKLAHOMA
Another striking mural full of color and personality. The Tattoo Woman mural is on the side of the Hall of Tattoos in Norman, Oklahoma. This huge mural was created by Tattoo Artist and Mural Artist Derek Vosten in conjunction with Dreamer Concepts and the Hall of Tattoos.
BROKEN SPIRIT – LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY
I think you are seeing a theme with birds evolve with my favorite murals. I came across this lovely owl mural in the Shelby Park District of Louisville, Kentucky. It is basically a three-eyed owl breaking a crescent moon with its talons. It was painted by The Art Cartel of Louisville, namely Wilfred Sieg III, who is known as an eclectic visionary artist. His use of color, imagination and artistic expression are wonderful. He has a number of other pieces in the Louisville, KY and Jeffersontown, IN areas, but this one was fascinating to me. This huge mural was completed in 2021 and can be seen in Shelby Park on Logan Street.
LUCKY CAT – RICHMOND, KENTUCKY
Another of my favorite mural artists is Richmond, Kentucky artist Graham Allen and SquarePegs Studio in Lexington, Kentucky. Graham has painted dozens of murals and advertising artwork in central Kentucky, many of which I have photographed and written about in the past. This “Lucky Cat” was completed in 2024 for Brady’s Sushi & Hibachi in Richmond, Kentucky. Always a big fan of things Japanese, I love this colorful and fun mural.
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF CROW – LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY
This is another lovely mural by Wilfred Sieg III. It is located in the Shelby Park area of Louisville and was completed in September 2015. It is painted on the side of building for Sober Solutions, a recovery house for men with alcohol addictions. CROW actually was an acronym for a program called “Cannot Read Or Write” that was established in the 1960s by Ron McKiernan.
BLEU GIRL – ROGERS, ARKANSAS
I like cartoonish wall art and Rogers has a couple of great ones. Bleu Girl was commissioned by the Urban Bleu Hair Salon in Rogers, Arkansas. Andy and Holly Wallace from Gravette, Arkansas. It was completed in October 2016.
ICEHOUSE MURAL – ROGERS, ARKANSAS
This 50 ft. mural was completed in April 2019 by British Contemporary Urban Pop Artist Rich Simmons. He is well known for doing murals that look like they come from comic books. It is on the side of the Old Icehouse Building, which has been around since the 1890s. Simmons says that this mural was inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci and it fits his work that melds visual culture, pop art, comic books and the Renaissance. At that point it was Simmons’ largest mural. Simmons is also the creator and founder of Art Is The Cure, an award-winning organization that promotes art therapy and has run workshops all over the world.
TRILL SENIOR CITIZENS – LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY
This is a large mural in the Shelby Park Neighborhood of Louisville. It is one of many murals added to the area in September 2024 as part of the 2Buck Invitational, an all-city art event whose main goal it to highlight the region’s artists. Dozens of wonderful murals were painted in 2024. This mural is colorful and also includes graffiti styling. I am not sure who the artist was.
THE ARRIVAL – LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY
I absolutely love this piece and after perusing Columbus, Ohio artist Mandi Caskey’s (aka Miss Birdy) art, I have instantly fallen in love with her stylings. Her work blends fantasy and realism. This mural, titled The Arrival, was completed in 2023.
HARMONY – GARLAND, TEXAS
Splashes of color and the feeling of movement and music cover the wall of a building in Garland, Texas. This amazing and expansive mural was created by Denton, Texas artist John Bramblitt. In researching this work, I discovered something amazing about it…JOHN BRAMBLITT IS BLIND!!! In 2001, Bramblitt lost his sight due to complications with epilepsy and Lyme’s disease. In 2017 he became the first blind person in the world to work on murals and has done them in various locations including New York, South Korea and Texas. For this mural, the central character is a woman who seems to be taking in the music playing all around her. It includes dancers on the left side of the mural. A small section of the mural contains the Braille letters that spell out ‘Harmony.’ To Bramblitt, “the hope for the mural is to represent not only the harmony of music, but the harmony that is built when people come together and share and create with one another.”
There was a short news post about this from March 2024 on YouTube. I don’t always add videos, but this one needs to be here.
FEMININE ENERGY – CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA
Please note…I could not find a title for this one so I used a part of the artist’s description and added my own title. This expansive mural wraps around a building on Elizabeth Street near Laidley Field in Charleston, West Virginia. It was painted by West Virginia native artist Carlos Culbertson who goes by artist name Zulu Painter. He wanted to dedicate this work to “all the feminine energy out there nurturing, protecting and guiding.” He has painted murals all over and loves to use vibrant colors to tell the stories he want to paint.
STONECLOUD BREWING MURAL – OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA
I came across this great piece of art on the side of Stonecloud Brewing Company in Oklahoma City. It is 70 feet wide by 12 feet high and features some famous folks. The artist is Carlos Barboza who was born in Costa Rica and currently works out of Yukon, Oklahoma. He is well known for his large murals throughout the state. I found this one to be pretty unique with a number of what may be Barboza’s heroes. I am not sure if it has a title. The people shown from left to right Frida Kahlo, Jessie Owens, Johnny Cash, Anthony Bourdain, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Freddy Mercury, Clara Luper, Civil Rights, Brandi Chastain and David Bowie. According to Barboza, he just “wanted to pay tribute to the people out there that go against the grain; the ones who refuse to be bound by dogma or defined by their party affiliation. I have some closeups of some of the sections shown below. I used the photo from KFOR TV in OKC since it covers the entirety. I couldn’t get a good clear shot of it.
CAMPY WASHINGTON – CINCINNATI, OHIO
I took a visit to the Sign Museum in Cincinnati and on my out I came across this really whimsical four-story tall mural of George Washington in Victorian Style dress and surrounded by flying pigs. It was painted by artist Scott Donaldson who I believe is from Cincinnati. It is located at 3025 Colerain Ave., next to Camp Washington Chili. This is 49 feet tall and 28 feet wide. It was completed in 2009. Sadly, I should have taken some sections.
HERE AND NOW – OKLAHOMA CITY
There are literally dozens of murals around Oklahoma City. But some of the largest and most unique have been done by local artist Denise Duong. Here work is both colorful with a hint of surrealism. I visited three of her installations in OKC, but I found this one most fascinating. It is a huge mural and was completed in October 2021. Following are a few more shots
THIS LAND – OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA
My last mural for this post is a giant 100′ by 128′ artwork on the side of the Summit OKC Silos. It was painted by Mustang, Oklahoma artist Rick Sinnett. The design pays tribute to Native America and includes a large bison, a scissortail flycatcher, Indian paintbrush flowers, wheat and Oklahoma River elements.
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