The writing is on the wall in Charlottesville, in the best way. From Belmont to Barracks and from the Corner to the Downtown Mall, murals have been woven into the fabric of the City, blurring the line between public space and personal expression. Each piece invites passersbys to pause, to look closer and to see their home a little differently.
Artist Christy Baker began her journey with murals growing up here in Charlottesville, where she returned after attaining her BFA in New York City. In 2020, Baker founded the artistic painting and design studio greenyellowblue as an avenue to pursue her passion in murals and other large-scale public artwork.
“Anytime attention is paid to an environment in which people interact, there is the possibility for deeper connection to that place, and therefore to their community at large,” Baker said.
Baker’s impact can be seen in bold colors and clean geometrical patterns displayed across the City’s structures, including her bison mural outside of Guajiros, a vision of public art as mutual inspiration — not only across the arts community, but the City as a whole.
For artists like Baker and James “Jae” Johnson, a fellow muralist and Charlottesville native, that sense of connection lies at the heart of the City's growing public art scene. Johnson reflected on how the City’s creative landscape has developed in recent years, an evolution that has brought public art — and the artists behind it — into clearer view.
“Whether it's at the IX Art Park, the McGuffey [Arts Center], the [University], [public art] has been pushed to the forefront and helped lift up the art scene here,” Johnson said. “Right now, it's pretty much thriving. This area is rich with talent, whether it's dance, art, photography, everything.”
Johnson’s first major mural can be found on the exterior of the Starbucks on West Main Street, where bright, kinetic figures bring movement and optimism to what would otherwise be a familiar and unremarkable facade — an extension of his philosophy that art should energize the spaces of the everyday.
“I'm just a normal guy just trying to share my gift,” Johnson said. “One of the best gifts that people do give me, they'll send me a random text of them taking a picture in front of my art.”
Baker expressed a similar vision for her murals, as an encouragement to the public to expect the unexpected. She spoke of the joy and delight that comes with encountering public art, citing the bison mural and the sense of place and connection that she sought to create with it.
Where Baker knew her interest was in murals from an early age, Johnson pursued his degree in studio art and only came to murals around the time of the pandemic when he was approached to create a design for the psychiatric ward of the University Hospital. Interspersed in the design with vignettes from Charlottesville life and portraits of individuals are the words “fellowship,” “community,” “persistence” and “hard work,” reflections of the larger message that he hopes to convey.
“Everybody [has] gotten more and more open to my style and what my strengths are,” Johnson said. “They give me the green light to be creatively free.”
For Johnson, the design process is not something with a defined timeline or end date, but rather a series of revisions and refinements working towards an ultimate goal. Such a necessity for ongoing adjustments prompted his transition from working on pen and paper to an iPad, as he found that going digital allowed for a more streamlined modification phase.
Baker said that her design process often begins with listening — to the client, to the space, to the neighborhood around it, with the goal to incorporate multiple voices into a single expression of community. Depending on the scope of the project, Baker will occasionally turn over some of the prep work to a trusted contractor, but all of the painting she does herself with the highest grade materials available to her.
“Every time a person interacts with that color and that experience, there's a sense of ownership, of place, of connectedness,” she said. “My goal and hope is that then they would take that out into their experience throughout the day and [see] how that impacts other people.”
For both Johnson and Baker, art exists as a vehicle not only for them to impact others, but for others to impact them. Baker described a mural as an “unexpected experience of being,” an idea Johnson incorporates not only into his work but into his life, as he leads mural camps, paint n’ play events and other creative projects at the Art Bar Cville.
“A lot of people are afraid to, for lack of a better way of putting it, do art because they're not good in their aspect,” he said. “We all have different levels of talent, but at the end of the day, it's not about your talent. It's just how it makes you feel.”
Together with a broad network of local artists, Baker and Johnson are helping define a new chapter in Charlottesville’s creative landscape, one where public spaces exist as reflections of shared creativity and community. While each approaches the urban canvas of Charlottesville differently, both see murals as bridges between artist and audience, individual and city. Each mural serves as a reminder that art is not just to look at but to live with, and each artist adds new color to the City's story — one of connection, of memory, of love.
“I love Charlottesville,” Johnson said. “I didn't realize how much Charlottesville loves me.”
Both Baker and Johnson are parents, and both have woven their families into their art — sometimes literally. On the backside of Circa in McIntire Plaza, Baker’s mural depicts her son blowing bubbles, a moment she says was both joyful and deeply personal. Years later, though the mural has faded some, its meaning has not and continues to make Baker smile every time she drives by.
“There's something about creating, or having an impact on, an environment in which your children are growing and developing,” Baker said.
Johnson has also included his children, incorporating them into his mural for the Red Cross on Rose Hill, a vibrant display spotlighting images of those impacted by climate change. The backdrop of this piece depicts his own home neighborhood, and the higher energy costs they face as a result of a lack of tree coverage in the area — a choice that stems from a desire to see his own identity reflected in his work.
"[My art] may outlive me,” Johnson said. “I can go any day, but this art will still be there. And so every mural, I … leave a piece of me there, just so [Charlottesville] can have some type of memory of me.”
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