Fans of American blues and folk musician Elizabeth Cotten will be able to see a new mural on the border of Chapel Hill and Carrboro portraying the Chapel Hill native.
The mural, meant to bring attention to the influential musician, is part of the North Carolina Musician Murals project. The project, which features large-scale murals in the hometowns of famous North Carolina musicians, was created by Chapel Hill based-artist Scott Nurkin.
Nurkin painted the Cotten mural on 111 N. Merritt Mill Road.
The roots of the North Carolina Musician Murals project lie on a wall inside of a former Chapel Hill restaurant, Pepperâs Pizza. This is where Nurkin arranged portraits of renowned North Carolina musicians in an effort to bring attention to their talent. When Pepperâs Pizza closed, Nurkin took his talents elsewhere, creating large-scale murals in the hometowns of the musicians he originally honored at Pepper's.
Nurkin said he wants the mural to bring attention to Cotten and her influential life.
âThere are plenty of African American women singers out there, but not blues musicians who had their own fingerpicking style and had their own hit song at the age of 12,â Nurkin said.
Cotten was born in 1895 near Chapel Hill, in the area now known as Carrboro. She began to write and play music at a young age â having written one of her most well-known songs, "Freight Train," at age 12.
