Atlanta Muralist Eric Nine Unveils Painted Bench on Fayetteville’s Courthouse Square

Atlanta-based muralist and fine artist Eric Nine has unveiled his latest creation, “The Space Between Us,” a painted bench on Fayetteville’s Courthouse Square as part of the City’s downtown art initiative. The abstract piece was inspired by the way ancient communities gathered around fire, using that shared space as a symbol for conversation, relationships, and the invisible connections between people. It is located along a sidewalk across the street diagonally from Gremlin Growlers and just north of the Historic Fayette County Courthouse (105 Glynn Street North).

“Public art creates opportunities for people to slow down, connect, and experience a place together,” Nine said. “That’s what excites me most about projects like this. I hope people don’t just walk past this bench. I hope they sit, have conversations, make memories, and leave feeling a little more connected than when they arrived.”

Nine’s artwork, mostly murals, spans the East Coast from Boston down to Miami, but the majority can be found in Atlanta, his adopted hometown. The new bench is his second piece of public art in Fayetteville. The first was a mural commissioned a few years ago by Trilith Guesthouse, a boutique hotel located in the Town at Trilith mixed-use community on Fayetteville’s west side. That mural depicted a movie premiere red carpet experience. It has since been replaced by a mural tribute to the classic film “King Kong.”

Nine’s bench on the Square follows the recent completion of Peachtree City artist Krystal Maynor’s “A Place to Imagine,” a full-scale mural one block away on the south-facing wall of the Twisted Taco and Thai Rickshaw restaurants, also located on the Courthouse Square. Maynor’s new mural replaces a previous turn-of-the-last-century-themed mural created in 1993 by local artists Patsy and Ed Gullett. A movie industry-themed mural painted in 2016 by Scott McIntyre is on the north side of that same building, on the outside wall of Gremlin Growlers.

“This bench is one of our first projects for our art placement plan,” said Fayetteville Senior Planner Marissa Jackson. “It’s going to bring more people to our downtown, and more vibrancy.”

“This is an initiative we have planned for a very long time. It’s good to see it finally come to fruition,” said Fayetteville Mayor Pro-Tem Darryl Langford, who presided over the official bench unveiling. “This is only the beginning. There’s plenty more to come.”

Some Fayetteville residents may already be familiar with Nine’s other public art in Atlanta. His murals are prominently featured in East Atlanta Village, on the Beltline, and in the Little Five Points and Castleberry Hill communities. More of Nine’s work is available on his website, www.ericnine.com.

The painted bench project was a collaboration between the City of Fayetteville’s Public Services and Planning & Zoning departments along with the Downtown Development Authority/Main Street Board in support of the City’s Downtown Fayetteville Creative Placemaking Implementation Strategy. Learn more at www.fayetteville-ga.gov/LCI.