Matt Hooker & Matt Moore

Comprising one-fourth of a mile, Matt Moore’s work on 1701-1801 N. Graham St. could be the largest mural in the Southeastern United States. Moore—known as a premier muralist of the region and for his partnership with studiomate Matt Hooker—says it was also his most difficult job to date. Over three months, he gradually crafted this massive, singular work on corrugated metal.

The scope of this feat becomes more obvious as you approach the building and see that his isometric lines were painted by hand on the ridged canvas. Over these shifting, 30-degree surfaces, Moore’s work took on a more stripped-down, geometric slant than his usual figurative pieces. Yet, he was still telling a story, one about the site the mural represents: “My favorite thing about Camp North End is the six degrees of separation,” he says, today. “The creative reach we have here is insane. Everybody is feeding off each other, and that’s the place where we started with this. This place has this mix of tech and art, and each of these colors and intersecting lines show us how collaboration works.”

There were many iterations of this project before the final design was approved. When you pair that with nearly 90 days of steady, painstaking construction of the mural’s forms, Moore remembers the project as being a challenged and laborious affair. Still, there was a moment toward the end of spring 2020 that put the entire project into perspective.

“All of the sudden there was a global pandemic,” he says today. “I’m up there on this scissor lift, watching the sun set on Camp North End and thinking about what this place means, and I was just overwhelmed with gratitude. The polarity of this job, with its ups and down, was behind that gratitude. Anything that’s worth doing is going to have some difficulty behind it. All of the teeth-grinding was worth it.”

« back