Devotion to Art and Family: The Creation of Jackson's Newest Mural

WRITTEN BY OLIVIA BELL
PHOTOGRAPHED BY OLIVIA BELL AND MADDIE MCMURRY

“It’s sort of a blueprint of Jackson,” Sarah Cagle said.

In 2021, after the city of Jackon received a $100,000 grant from the “Love Your Block” program, Sarah Cagle and her husband, Jonathan Cagle, applied to install a mural as a new public art piece. The artwork got accepted and thus commenced the journey of designing and painting the Hub City Blueprint and Sherwin Williams mural on Airways Boulevard.

While Sarah is a full-time stay at home mom, she also is a full-time artist who is very familiar with the process of creating public art. She has painted two murals in Jackson, one in Adamsville, Tennessee, and three in Lexington, Tennessee along with a wooden butterfly installation.

Jonathan is also an artist, working at Hub City Blueprint full-time. The two have had the opportunity to work on several art projects together and their new mural is one that is especially near and dear to them because of their connections with the place and the community surrounding it.

“It’s the businesses, but it’s also the people that run these businesses that make Jackson. What ties everyone together is their city, so I wanted it to be about those things,” Sarah said. 

Because the Hub City mural is a piece of public art, Sarah, as the designer and main artist, explained how important it is to think about how people will view your art and what it looks like from every angle. For this mural, most people will probably drive by it instead of walk up to it because of its placement on the street. However, if people do walk by, there are different details that become more noticeable when you look up close.

“My process as the artist is to do research on where it is so that the public art fits within the context of the space. What do you want them to see? How do you want them to interact with it?” Sarah said. 

With the design, Hub City Blueprint wanted to give nods to other businesses and entrepreneurs in the Jackson area– featuring the RIFA bus, Cliff Martin’s classic JKSN t-shirt logo, the NED, and other elements from the arts district. It also includes a wide variety of historical and naturalistic elements like the Casey Jones train and Cypress Grove. Sarah also included the phrase “The original Hub City” in the mural because in her research she found that Hub City Blueprint was the first business to use “Hub City” in their name.

Sarah’s process for designing the mural was lengthy and required a lot of back and forth with Amy Richards, her contact with Hub City Blueprint. However, with the help of Jonathan and a team of a few other people who prepared the space, the time it took to actually paint it onto the wall was only around two weeks.

“My role changes every project. I really just try to get a feel for how I can help her the most each time. I pressure washed the wall beforehand and primed it and filled in the base layers as well. She designed the mural on procreate and I helped bring the design up to scale with a lot of math, photos, and adobe illustrator. I projected the drawing on the building at nighttime and traced it out. She would come in the daytime and I would help her paint,” Jonathan said. 

Sarah and Jonathan are a team. As husband and wife they already work well together, and when it comes to art, they make one another even stronger. Art brought them together and was how they met, and since then, it has become a vital aspect of their relationship. 

“I was doing an art show and I needed a second artist to do the show with me. I said ‘Hey do you want to get your work and be in a show with me?’ and he said yes. After that we started dating and then we got married. We do art together all the time,” Sarah said. 

As an artist, it’s important to have a support system. You need people who you can talk to about your art, get ideas from, and be encouraged by. In more ways than one, Sarah’s support system is her husband. They share life together, but they also share art together. 

“He’s a very good painter and a very good artist. I can always talk to him and bounce ideas off of him,” Sarah said. “He knows a lot about the technical stuff. Like when I first started out I didn’t know how to use a projector, but he did. Then with the lift, that heavy equipment like that, was intimidating at first for me, so he helps with that too. He helps me to just be better and try new things. He’s a big part of it.”

Most people will probably never have the opportunity to work on something like this with their spouse or have the same ambitions as them or share in the same creative passions. For many of us, it’s just not in the cards because as they say, opposites tend to attract. However, for Sarah and Jonathan, this is their reality. They get to do what they love with the person they love. 

“We are both artists, that’s how we met and part of what made us fall in love. I look forward to any opportunity I get to help her paint or create something. I feel like the opportunity to be creative together helps us reconnect,” Jonathan said.

In the same way Sarah and Jonathan’s shared passion for art has impacted the public and the people who drive by their mural everyday, it also impacts every aspect of their own lives– including their family life. The Cagles wouldn’t be the Cagles if they weren’t doing something creative or artistic.

“Jonathan makes videos and stuff when we go on a vacation with our kids. He will do a little video of our vacation, things like that. We use it in our family life and it’s just a big part of our family. Our kids draw, even the baby, he likes to draw and paint. My ten year old has written a book and he makes comic books, so I see a lot of talent with that. As they get older I’ll have like a whole little crew. That’s the dream,” Sarah said. 

Because family and art are central to Sarah and Jonathan’s lives, the fact that they get to do this for a living is a dream come true. Sarah is a devoted mother and a devoted artist and everytime she has the opportunity to paint a mural she is humbled by the idea that people appreciate her art enough to put it on their wall.

“The first person that ever trusted me to paint on their walls, I mean that was just a big deal,” Sarah said. “That was always a big dream of mine, to just be able to be an artist. And now I get to be one, so I’m just extremely thankful.”