{"id":42786,"date":"2022-05-15T10:05:43","date_gmt":"2022-05-15T14:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=42786"},"modified":"2022-06-06T11:28:34","modified_gmt":"2022-06-06T15:28:34","slug":"for-madison-myers-theres-an-art-to-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2022\/05\/for-madison-myers-theres-an-art-to-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"For Madison Myers, there\u2019s an art to marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Shortly after participating in UTC commencement ceremonies on May 7, Madison Myers\u2014with family and friends watching\u2014completed \u201cSandy The Flower Man.\u201d Photo by Chris Campbell.<\/p><\/div>\n

Madison Myers is leaving her mark on Chattanooga, both figuratively and literally.<\/p>\n

Myers is a recent graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga\u2019s Gary W. Rollins College of Business, where she majored in marketing. Perhaps one day soon, she\u2019ll be known for that.<\/p>\n

For now, it\u2019s her side gig that\u2019s garnering plenty of attention.<\/p>\n

For a second straight year, Myers was selected by EPB to work on a community mural project at its East 10th Street substation. This year\u2019s mural theme, \u201cVoices of MLK,\u201d highlights the history and significance of downtown Chattanooga\u2019s MLK Boulevard area, and Myers was one of 12 local artists chosen for the project.<\/p>\n

Sandy Bell, a Chattanooga icon known as \u201cThe Flower Man,\u201d served as the inspiration for Myers\u2019 latest work.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a very upbeat and generous man,\u201d Myers said of Bell, who passed away in 2019. \u201cHe would ride around downtown Chattanooga on his bike and hand out flowers to people in restaurants and bars and on the streets and he didn\u2019t ask for anything in return. He just simply wanted to have a conversation with people and put a smile on their faces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Myers said she wasn\u2019t planning to apply for the second year of the EPB mural project because she didn\u2019t know if she could, but she had been toying with the idea of doing a \u201cSandy The Flower Man\u201d mural.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in September 2021, I made a sketch and thought, \u2018I\u2019ll just put it out there. If I ever got another mural gig in Chattanooga, this might be a good idea for it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI posted it on my Instagram and through the power of social media, it reached Sandy Bell\u2019s nieces. They reacted to it positively, which was really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

From painting nails to painting murals<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n

Myers, a native of Mount Juliet, Tennessee, said her creative side traces back to her middle school days when her friends started going to the nail salon to get their nails done.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom was like, \u2018No, we not taking you to go do that,\u2019 so I started painting my nails with these crazy designs\u2014really detailed fruit, flowers and all sorts of things,\u201d Myers said. \u201cSo it really started small.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feeding her creative side took flight during her senior year in high school. After her parents brought her a sketchbook from an overseas trip, she took an Art 1 class as an elective required for graduation, \u201cand my art teacher there was like, \u2018We need to bump you up to AP Art.\u2019 That kind of took me in another direction,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That direction led to painting murals.<\/p>\n

\n

How it all started<\/strong><\/h4>\n