Dallas

Canton Street

Rod H

19 Mar 2023 • 5 min read

One of my favorites.

(3/12/2023, #23)

When we began our Month of Sundays project we intended to cover the 30-something blocks bounded by Exposition on the east, Good-Latimer on the west, Elm on the north, and Canton on the south. Canton is where we are headed today.

My intrepid companion and I started our walk down Canton at Good-Latimer, from the downtown side of Deep Ellum. Canton Street doesn't have the shop vibe of Main, Commerce, or Elm, and is a more direct throughway to East Dallas.

First we saw "The Future is Unwritten" by Joe Iurato on the north side of the street celebrating Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pantera, and young musicians.

Further east at Canton and Crowdus is this stylized American flag celebrating hops and axes on the side of Whiskey Hatchet.

Keep heading east to Malcolm X and drop south for a block, past Virgil Street before Taylor, and look to the west where you'll see a man with an umbrella indicating the entrance to the Life in Deep Ellum cultural center. (Side note - I'm excited to see the current exhibit of Trigger Fingers artists - Trigger Fingers 2023 is coming up April 1.)

We are going to stay to the south of Canton for the next couple of blocks, because honestly the action is on Virgil and Taylor here. Walk down Taylor to the east and you'll see the work around Dallas Mavericks headquarters.

Dirk mural (izk) on Mavs west wall, NBA 2022 on south wall by @texmoton and @mezdata, Dr. Pepper and Mavericks by @texmoton on north wall.

If you followed the trail of work around the Mavs building, keep going to the entrance of the parking garage at the Novel Building on Virgil Street and you'll see works by Ryan Stalsby and Drigo. The Novel Apartments are a good example of exterior and interior art in Deep Ellum - check out the link here.

When you've seen these, keep going to the east down Virgil Street to Walton, where you'll find these.

Back in September, we talked to Mike McPheeters as he was in the middle of the work.

The mural extends around to Taylor Street - check it out.

This is a work by Frank Campagna from 2007.

Head back to Canton on Walton and you'll pass works we wrote about in September.

Back on Canton, head east across Hall to Murray Street, where we previously saw several works on the walls of Barrington Gifts and the Deep Ellum Art Company.

This Dan Colcer work is best seen in springtime :)

You can see the street map connective tissue a little better in this shot of the walls of Deep Ellum Art Company on Murray Street.

Keep going east to Trunk Avenue, where to the north you'll see these works that we showed back in September. Since then, two new works have been added to the lineup, both by Designs_by_Dee.

Head south across Canton on Trunk, where it turns into a wide gravelly area, and you'll see the area where Trigger Fingers occurs. We watched artists at work here in 2022, and are looking forward to the 2023 event.

The next street crossing Canton is South 2nd Avenue. Look south, and you'll see this work "Horses" by FAILE - it's hanging in there.

Canton now goes through the intersection at Exposition Plaza, near where we started our project. Keep going east and just before you cross the DART light rail line, check out these murals in the parking lot to the left - they are nice but hidden.

We are going to finish up this Deep Ellum post here. Canton eastbound turns into Main for a bit, before changing again into Columbia Avenue as it moves through East Dallas on the way to Lower Greenville, Lakewood, and points east, with more murals to see another day.

We've covered the territory that we set out in September for our Month of Sundays project. If you enjoy these posts, sign up with your email and let us know what you think. Commenting is a great way to let us know what we might have missed, what's new, and what's on the interior of many of these buildings.

Thanks for sharing the trip!