University of Memphis art student Ben Moss and his friend, Charlie Davis, recently completed a project they hope will be the first step in encouraging other artists to help “beautify” that part of Downtown.

Moss and Davis recently spent about a week working on a mural for the wall of Robert Johnson Furniture Conservation and Reproductions at the corner of South Main and Talbot streets.

Moss and Davis have been friends for six years and have maintained their friendship by collaborating on art projects, though this is the first public art project they’ve done.

The furniture store at 372 S. Main St. looks like an abandoned warehouse, but it’s not. Johnson uses the space to design and build furniture.

In the week since Moss and Davis completed the mural, Johnson said people have really been drawn to the colorful centerpiece – stopping to have their photographs taken with it or asking questions about its symbols.

“It just makes sense to have art – free art – in the arts district,” Johnson said. “Someone even asked who was going to sit in the chair.”

Having some fun

The design for the mural is inspired by the 1980s arcade game Q*bert, in which the player maneuvers around an isometric pyramid-like structure of tri-colored cubes.

The mural’s centerpiece is a pyramid of cubical shapes in light blue and purple with gold coins cascading from faucet handles on either side. On top of the pyramid, a chair, which has a stack of gold coins sitting on it, has been glued to the wall. It’s not clear what the message is supposed to be.

Asked what he hopes people will take from it, Moss said it will be different for each person depending on how they view it.

“I just was interested in the colors and I’ve been real interested in hand-drawn geometric shapes,” Moss said. “I’ve got a book on optical illusions and there are some optical illusions in the mural and we’re interested in just the irony of optical illusions hand drawn and seeing how those would look just really crudely done.

“It’s kind of ironic and humorous to me and a lot of my work is definitely humorous. And if it doesn’t have humor in it, I’ve definitely failed.”

Moss, who previously was a student at Columbia Performing and Visual Arts College in Chicago, recently transferred to the University of Memphis. He will graduate in May with his bachelor’s degree in fine arts with a concentration in sculpture.

And it was one of his U of M professors, Greely Myatt, who suggested he contact Johnson about making the mural. Then he and Davis approached Johnson with a design, which Johnson approved.

“It’s good for business owners and residents to promote that (work by local artists),” Johnson said.

When Moss graduates from the U of M, he said he’d like to be able to make a living as an artist. Already, he’s generated some interest in the community from having his work on display in the South Main Arts District.

While he was working on the mural, he was approached by at least one business owner who discussed the possibility of doing something similar outside his business.

Moss declined to reveal the business owner because the details have not been worked out.