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HomeTrust Park, the longtime (and newly rechristened) home of the Asheville Tourists, underwent a major renovation prior to the start of the 2026 season. Among the new additions are 19 murals positioned along the entranceways and emblazoned upon the brick walls of the ballpark's exterior. You can't miss 'em.
These hand painted works, highlighting the Houston High-A affiliate's logos, wordmarks and history, were created by Asheville-based artist Amar Stewart. He dealt with unique challenges and a harrowing injury over the course of the project but saw it through to completion, which shouldn't be a surprise. Stewart, a cancer survivor, has learned to fight through adversity to keep his artistic pursuits aloft.
"Every brush stroke in there, it tells a story of everything we went through," he said. "We had three months to get this all done, and that's a lot of pressure."
Stewart has lived in Asheville since 2019, continuing an art career that began in his native England. He grew up in the small town of Leamington Spa, which he said is "probably the same size of Asheville," and became interested in the art world while operating a streetwear shop in London.
"I decided being an artist was what I wanted to do, and I ended up moving to New York [City] because I was focused on a lot of hip-hop portraiture," he said. "I went down the route of doing oil paintings and telling the stories of people who inspired me. Focusing on Black and brown culture and painting them in a certain way that hadn't been done before."
That series of paintings, collectively titled 'Hip Hop Royalty," gained attention in the NYC art world and beyond and solidified Stewart's reputation. In the summer of 2016, however, he got hit "out of the blue" with a major setback: stage four tongue cancer.
"They had to basically remove my whole tongue and then use muscle from my legs to rebuild that area, and I had radiation to remove any of the remaining cancer cells," he said. "It's pretty rough, man … I was meant to have a feeding tube for the rest of my life, not eat or drink anything, but fortunately I was able to work a way around it and figure it out."
Stewart had his cancer surgery in London -- follow-up operations helped him regain his ability to speak -- and returned to New York City in 2017. He resumed his art career and was profiled by The New York Times, but, in a tale as old as time, the high cost of living necessitated taking jobs outside of his art career. This hard economic reality eventually led to the decision to move to Asheville, in 2019.
"There's something nice about opening the door and it's just nature, rather than a building, and the stress of bumping into a million people," he said.
Stewart's portfolio, featuring his varied personal pursuits as well as commercial work for Asheville bands and breweries, helped him land the mural painting job at HomeTrust Park. It was grueling work -- often delayed by cold temperatures that made it impossible to paint -- and he couldn't do it alone. The assistance of his friends in Asheville's art community turned out to be crucial beyond what he could have imagined.
"I had a fall painting one of the last murals here. I was like 90 percent done and I fell off a 21-foot extension ladder on my pelvis," he said. "I broke my pelvis … cracked my head open, had a bone bruise. That was [in late March]. It’s all healing up now. I remember waking up and seeing my work partner. He was a saint."
That work partner, Ish Weaver, went on to finish the last several ballpark murals along with Lucy Ballentine and Ian the Painter [Ian Wilkinson].
"I'm glad I was able to do most of the painting with Ish, but having a team to take it to the finish line and see the finished project was really special," said Stewart. "I was able to chip in where I could, running the admin side but from a hospital bed."
Improbably, but perhaps inevitably, the work got done. Now, when Stewart attends a Tourists game, enlivened by the baseball imagery he added to the walls, it's with a sense of gratitude and accomplishment.
"This was the biggest project I've ever done, by far," he said. "I moved from London. I moved from New York. I thought I would never move away from there … but now I want to be more a part of the community here. And I love that. I love this. I love the sense of community."