Starry Night Clarksville

This mural is painted by @draftsbyolasubomi features the Montgomery County Courthouse and Customs House museum on a background similar to Van Gogh's Starry Night. It is located off Madison St. near Hiter St. in the parking lot for Dollar General.

Opryland Ballroom Mural: Jackson Statue & Capitol

In Opryland Hotel's original ballroom area, the walls are painted to depict scenes from Nashville around the time of Tennessee's Centennial, in the late 1800's. To view the entire set of 8, Click Here.

The Tennessee State Capitol was designed by William Strickland, who also designed the U.S. Capitol. The building was finished in 1859. The Andrew Jackson riding statue was completed soon thereafter, and an identical statue was placed in New Orleans and one in Washington D.C. near the capitol.

Nashville in the 1940's painting replica

This painting is reproduced in a lobby at the downtown Nashville public library.

A little game you can make out of this is to find the man-made structures that are still standing today. After looking for a minute, I count 7, which means that there are probably a few more than that. (It's probably easier at the largest size.)

1) The state Capitol
2) Ryman Auditorium.
3) The Nashville Bridge Co. Building.
4) St. Mary's Church.
5) the War Memorial Auditorium
6) Hermitage Hotel
7) Shelby Street Bridge

Arts and Crafts of the Tennessee State Fair

The Tennessee State Fair opens today! One of things to be seen at the fair are the works of the many varied types of artisans from around the state! There's artwork that you're familiar with, such as painting and drawing, as well as forms of art you may have never seen before. Here are some entries from previous fairs:



Here is the Best in Show painting from 2008.



The People's Choice Award winning quilt from 2010.



There are several categories just for youth. Here is one of the winning youth sewing: Dressmaking entries.



This frog was named the Best Overall Youth in the baked goods section of the Creative Arts Building at the 2009 Tennessee State Fair.



This carousel was a blue ribbon winner for stitching at the 2009 fair.



In a medium I am not as familiar with comes this blue ribbon winning embossed copper representation of Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper.



Finally, another of the contests is Leathercraft. The Blue Ribbon winner was a guitar made out of leather. If you look closely, there are 4 midstate logos on the guitar. The first you'll notice is the Tennessee Flag. To its left is a Columbia Mule Day logo. Below that is a Tennessee Walking Horse. To the right of that one is the Grand Ole Opry.

September in Paris

September in Paris sounds romantic - unless your talking about Paris, TN, in which case your romantic mileage may vary.

A vacant building on the town square lists many of the upcoming events, of which there were plenty. Other windows gave the events for other months, but only this one has an Eiffel Tower, of which the TN city has a replica, along with a beret-wearing catfish. Paris's other claim to fame if the World's Biggest Fish Fry. These events are for 2011, so don't expect any of these dates to work this year.

Benjamin Moore painter at Hard Rock Cafe

Several years ago, this painting in Downtown Nashville along 2nd Ave. was part of an advertising sign for Benjamin Moore paint store. When the Hard Rock Cafe moved in, they refurbished the sign.

Restoring a Caboose - Lynnville, TN

For many years, the way to move from town to town was by train. Then, over time, better roads and airplanes made passenger trains obsolete. This left many of the small town train depots vacant.

Fast forward a couple of decades, and many small towns had to decide whether they were going to allow their stations to continue to decay. Sometimes, they were purchased to becomes someone's business. Better yet, many cities decided to try and preserve their depots to remember their railroad heritage.

A community preserved passenger depot would open as a museum, often with free admission. Inside, the museum would display whatever railroad memorabilia they could get locals to donate. Outside, they would like to get some trains, and many would acquire a steam locomotive, or more frequently a caboose, which the railroad companies don't really utilize often anymore.

Many of the railroad museums operate on a shoestring budget, relying solely on donations and work from volunteers. One such volunteer is seen here hoping to restore an L&N Caboose to its former glory. This is seen at the depot museum in the small town of Lynnville, TN in Giles County. I last saw this caboose in 2008, and at the time, its faded red surely needed a paint job. I'm glad to see that it was able to happen.

Williamsport, TN Post Office Artwork

Williamsport is a tiny little community is Maury County on Highway 50 between Columbia and Centerville. The small post office is also a convenience store and has three paintings on the side of the building. They are signed by Bonnie Callewaert.

The Old lady does not approve on the young lady's immodest clothing. The old lady also has a bottle of prune juice in her coat pocket