
By Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.–You’ll be seeing Paris Artist Chelsea Lodge a lot in the coming days, working on downtown Paris’ latest mural.
Lodge and Paris-Henry County Chamber of Commerce CEO Travis McLeese are excited about the mural, which is being created on the side of Uncle Billy’s restaurant on Blythe Street, adjacent to the downtown plaza and fountain.
The new mural has a “Welcome To Downtown Paris” theme, with several of the local landmarks featured, including the Henry County Courthouse, Grove Tower, Eiffel Tower, and of course–a giant catfish.
The mural is being done in free hand and Lodge got a lot of work done Sunday, with all of the outlining of the mural designs completed.
Lodge is operator of Chelsea Lodge Art and does paintings, portraits, commercial art and painting workshops. A painting of the Henry County Courthouse by Lodge was presented to former Henry County Mayor Brent Greer upon his retirement in 2020. Lodge also has painted indoor murals, including one at the Fairview Baptist Church in Paris, “but this is my first outdoor mural and I’m really excited about it,” she said.
McLeese said the project is a collaborative effort between the Shop Local Committee of the Chamber, the Downtown Paris Association and the business owner. “And we have other projects in mind for downtown. This will not be the last one,” McLeese said.
“One of the reasons we are investing in beautification of our downtown is that the world is transitioning more and more to shopping at the click of a finger, but we want to give our downtown great atmosphere so that people will want to stay here to do their shopping and also to attract the tourists to come to our downtown,” McLeese said.
An upcoming project will be hanging 36 hanging baskets on the lampposts downtown, which is a collaborative project with the DPA, the Athena Delphian organization and Wofford’s Nursery in Paris. McLeese and other Chamber officials will be displaying the new hanging baskets at Tuesday morning’s Chamber Coffee at Wofford’s Nursery.
Photo by Shannon McFarlin.