Everyone has heard of “mending fences,” but have you heard of mural-painting fences?
Scott Guion is using the blank canvas that fences offer to bring larger than life murals to residents in a Nashville neighborhood. He’s actually been doing it for over 12 years, and has painted over 70 faces of famous musicians and artists.
The city of Nashville has had a boom in murals throughout the downtown area, and Guion didn’t want the Berry Hills neighborhood to feel left out of the mural craze. The area is actually full of recording studios, like the House of Blues studio, and many of them have asked Scott to come brighten up the neighborhood with his now famous portraits.
Guion spoke to News Channel 5 in Nashville about the therapeutic experience that painting offers for him:
“I can express myself. I sorta meditate. I can kinda get in the zone, and it just feeds me. It is really special to be given the opportunity to do that. It’s amazing. I am just blessed.”
Some of the country greats that Scott has brought to life with brushstrokes are Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Reba McEntire, George Jones, Carrie Underwood, George Strait, and Dolly Parton, to name a few. The Dolly one that he completed stands out as one of Scott’s personal favorites, as he explained in the interview:
“Since I was a child, like everyone on the planet, I’ve loved Dolly Parton. To get to paint Dolly out here was really special and amazing.”
Guion doesn’t just stick to country stars though.
If you were to drive through the Berry Hills neighborhood, you would also see the likes of The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse, OutKast, Snoop Dogg, Jerry Garcia, Miley Cyrus, and one of his most recent projects, a mural of Led Zeppelin in mid-concert.
For the past decade, Scott has basically been on call for anyone in the neighborhood that wanted their fence spruced up.
The whole thing actually started when the owner of the House of Blues Recording Studio called wanting a touch of creativity added to the property:
“Suggested that I paint some of his favorite artists. Who’s the greatest of the greats? Who are the people who built music? Who can we honor?
Every once in a while he’d call me up and say, ‘Hey, I built a new fence. Why don’t you come to paint the new fence?'”
Scott clearly has a talent for painting, and he truly loves to bring the murals to life on the fences of the Nashville neighborhood. He tends to listen to the music of whatever artist he is painting in order to fully encapsulate himself and his art in the process:
“Getting to study the lives and listen to the music of the different artists out here is just fulfilling, man. I’m listening to their music. I’m watching videos. I’m learning.”
You can view more about the story, as well as a video of the murals, in the link below:
