Throughout the ages, artists have painted bucolic landscapes, beautiful portraits, and moody still lifes – often of fruit, wine and flowers.
Hammers and screwdrivers have not often been immortalized in art. But that’s changed.
Charlotte, North Carolina artist Chad Cartwright, who now goes by CHD:WCK!, was inspired by what you find on Lowes’s shelves and incorporated some of those items into three murals he painted for Lowe’s.
Lowe’s sought out CHD:WCK! to be part of the company's centennial murals project – one of several ways Lowe’s is celebrating the milestone.
CHD:WCK! was one of the artists Lowe’s commissioned to paint murals inspired by their hometown that are now on display at their local Lowe’s.
CHD:WCK!’s murals, each 16x8 feet, are being featured in three towns surrounding Charlotte – Pineville, Huntersville and Mooresville, home to Lowe’s headquarters. All 100 murals were put in place this summer.
Here are a few of the unlikely items that inspired him:
- Lightbulbs. They’re not just for illumination. They’re also a symbol for ideas and inspiration.
- Hammers. The artist took an aerial view of a hammer and thought it loosely resembled a person. The face of the hammer is the person’s head, and the claw can be seen as two legs. Bring a bunch of those together, and you have a community of people.
- A flathead and a Phillips head screwdriver. Looking at the tip of those, he saw a plus sign on one and a minus sign on the other. It was a bolt of inspiration.
“I just played with that idea,” he said. “That plus and minus – it’s sort of a symbol of how life goes. You have ups and downs, highs and lows. You celebrate the good and try to forget the bad.”
- Plants. That’s a motif CHD:WCK! linked to Lowe’s as well as the pandemic. “A lot of people, being in their homes and not able to go anywhere, turned to plants as a source of solace during the pandemic,” he said. “People started to bring more natural things into their spaces. I feel like plants are almost therapeutic.”
- Lastly, all three murals have a silhouette of North Carolina in honor of Lowe’s birthplace.
CHD:WCK! was among artists who painted a larger-than-life Black Lives Matter mural on Tryon St. – uptown Charlotte’s main thoroughfare – last summer.
“Before being part of the BLM mural, I wasn’t really known for large-scale work,” CHD:WCK! said. “My Instagram following doubled in the two weeks after that mural was painted. Since then, I’ve done four. And Lowe’s makes it five.”
Actually, seven if you count the three murals separately.
The murals won’t be stationary. They’re mobile and can be moved to different spots inside and outside the store.
Lowe’s gave each artist plenty of freedom to create what they want and in their own artistic style. CHD:WCK!’s bold, graphics-heavy style naturally lends itself to large-scale work.
“It’s great that Lowe’s is spotlighting local artists and giving us creative license,” CHD:WCK! said. “They wanted the murals to speak to the close interactions Lowe’s stores have with their communities. They gave us certain guidelines, like a range of colors we could work within. But at the end of the day, they want this to be about community connections.”
CHD:WCK! used some of the colors from his core palette – “Carolina blue” (appropriate for a company born in North Carolina), bright green and red.
His process began with a digital sketch before replicating it on a much bigger scale.
The painting was done in his studio, which is big – but only big enough for one mural at a time. He usually works with acrylics and spray paint. This time, he used acrylic paint from Sherwin-Williams. The paint, brushes and all the supplies he’ll need came from (where else?) Lowe’s.
“I love that Lowe’s is honoring communities by creating something people can enjoy,” he said. “I really hope people enjoy my work.”
