Signs of the Times
The mural at Debbies Embrodery titled “Signs of the Times,” was designed by Nico Cathcart with mentorship from Greta McLean of the Community Mural Institute. This project was a collaboration with the North Carolina School for the Deaf, the Community Mural Institute, and TOSS, an art program of The Industrial Commons.
Digital rendering: While photo references are used here, the design will be painted in Nico’s photo-realistic style.
Georgeanne Crowe, signing from her favorite book, The Giving Tree. Her dad signing books to her as a child connected her to ASL. She is wearing a locket with her husband's photo and is depicted “signing” to viewers on the sidewalk.
Ulissa Deloatch, signing “I love you” known as “everyone's grandma.” The background includes the campus with the water tower. The bus, in the background, is an homage to Ulissa’s husband who provided transportation for NCSD students for many years. Many Deaf students live quite a distance from the school, and the bus creates more equitable access to the school.
Melissa Schumate, in NCSD athletic gear, represents the community-building aspect of athletics. The background features a flowering tree from the school. Melissa will sign the word “Spirit,” reflecting her role in building school spirit at NCSD.
ASL is integrated throughout the design such as on the archways above the women. NCSD references are woven into the mural, including the school’s water tower and mascot. Goldfinches, native to the area and seen across campus, symbolize resilience and freedom.
The Artist
Nico Cathcart is the lead artist for this project. She is a renowned muralist focusing on photorealism, with murals across the country. Nico is a Deaf artist who has a degenerative hearing condition, having less than 30% of her natural hearing left, she is considered hard of hearing. She uses a combination of ASL, hearing aids and lip-reading to communicate. In 2023, Nico was named as one of 50 influential women muralists in the book “Street Art by Women.” Her 2023 mural, “Age and Grace” won a national mural award. You can see her work in the documentary Mending Walls, and in her TEDTalk about being a Deaf/Hard of Hearing muralist.
Public Input and Design Process
To gather community input, we held a public meeting in May, 2024, attended by over 30 Deaf Community members. A second session was organized with NCSD students, and the artist collected input from additional conversations and emails. We gathered historical information, reference images, and conducted interviews with the three people selected by the Steering Committee to be featured in the mural. After several rounds of feedback and adjustments, the mural design was enthusiastically approved by the Steering Committee.
Nico Cathcart, Lead Artist
Age and Grace
Nico Cathcart
Circle Center, Richmond, VA 2022
Photos in Collaboration with Caroline Shelnut
Input from the Public Meeting
Notes on the Design
We hope this project will be the first of many that celebrate and honor the Deaf Community in Burke County. One project can not account for all the rich history and all the incredible people who deserve to be honored. This is just a start! As a next step, we would like to encourage Deaf community members from Burke County to share their stories so we can publicly celebrate the variety of people and experiences here in Burke. You can see an example of how we’ve archived our interviews online, here. Please reach out and we can schedule your interview: kathryn@tosstudio.org
Progress Images
Paint Party
Studio Refinement
