Art across Atlanta

With his work showcased across Atlanta, Michael Wall passes by his art every day driving for MARTA.

Take MARTA buses 102 or 2 down Ponce de Leon and there is a lot to see: historic buildings, hip small businesses, the homeless — and art. Art is all around, painted on buildings, underpasses and walls by some of the city’s best mural artists. What makes taking MARTA down Ponce special is that the bus driver is one of those artists.

Michael Wall is one of 30 Atlanta artists whose work was selected by ArtPop Street Gallery, and displayed on billboards throughout metro Atlanta. ArtPop is a Charlotte, North Carolina-based nonprofit organization that promotes local artists’ work on available outdoor advertising space. With the addition of Atlanta this March, ArtPop, which pays the production costs, operates in four cities and has featured more than 400 artists.

‘Adulting’ for art

Wall, 30, grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina, and after graduating with a degree in visual arts and design from North Carolina A&T, relocated to Atlanta to try his hand at an art career. “I moved to Atlanta to see if I was as smart as I thought I was,” he says. “The art scene here is more challenging than in Greensboro.

Here there’s a lot of gatekeeping; you have to know someone. Greensboro was more communal. Here they have billions of dollars for a stadium but no money for the arts or homeless people.”

Eventually, he did an art show with The T-Shirt Lady in

East Atlanta Village and started meeting fellow artists such as Delta Tango Mike and Myer Bailey. However, like every hopeful artist, he needed to pay bills, and his $11-an-hour job at Target wasn’t cutting

COURTESY OF MARK ALBERHASKY Michael Wall proudly shows his billboard near Centennial Park.

DANIELLE SIMPSON WALL COURTESY OF MARTA bus driver Michael Wall is one of 30 artists whose work is displayed on billboards throughout metro Atlanta.