Celestial mural of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter greets Atlanta airport travelers

“We need people like this,” Williams told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We need good people to step up. … I like painting reminders of good people that stood up for other people, you know?”

Williams has, over the past few weeks, painted his mural of the Carters on an upper balcony of the domestic terminal above North baggage claim. On Tuesday afternoon, he added finishing touches with copper foil to the piece titled “Well Done Good and Faithful Servant, The Carters.”

The mural joins more than 1,000 artworks that make up the airport art program at Hartsfield-Jackson, which has one of the largest public art sites in the Southeastern United States.

Williams said the airport mural came about after the Carter family asked him to create art for Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday tribute at the Fox Theatre last September.

He said he was commissioned for the airport mural a few months ago, before Jimmy Carter died Dec. 29. The former president died a little over a year after Rosalynn’s passing in November 2023.

A longtime street artist, Williams has created public murals for the past nine years, including in East Point, Cabbage Town, near Edgewood Avenue and at Morehouse College.

But a mural at the world’s busiest airport has special significance.

“It’s definitely something that an artist sort of aims for,” Williams said. “There’s so many people that come through the airport — especially this airport — every day. … So it’s more eyes. The goal of an artist is really just for people to see their work.”

Credit: Kelly Yamanouchi

Credit: Kelly Yamanouchi

Williams, who lives in Grant Park, did the mural for a $15,000 commission from the airport. Atlanta’s public art master plan calls for setting aside 1% of certain spending for art, and the airport also uses its own funds to pay for art.

Hartsfield-Jackson’s senior manager for ATL Airport Art, Benjamin Austin, said the airport “wanted to create a tribute to the late former president and first lady that would honor their lifetime of service with a style and flair characteristic of Atlanta itself.”

“Fabian Williams was already connected with the Carters from designing art used for the 100th birthday celebration, and his track record of creating iconic public portraits across Atlanta of prominent figures made him a perfect candidate,” Austin said in an email to the AJC. “We’re thrilled with the finished mural which situates the two vibrantly rendered figures within a celestial background.”

Williams’ mural is an interpretation of a picture of the Carters given to him by the family. The photo has also been on display on digital video boards across the airport for years, Austin said.

Beneath the paint is an outline of the image over an array of hieroglyphs and words about the Carters' lives, including “Jimmy played a role in the global eradication of Guinea worm disease.”

It’s a technique used by muralists and street artists called the lazy grid, or doodle grid, which Williams said is “like a map for the piece.”

With his paintbrush, Williams said, he “basically painted a sunset” with the image of the Carters.

“It’s like their farewell,” he said. And behind them, “the cosmos” to represent “where they’re going to,” he said.

Williams said he did corporate design before he began doing public murals, and believes it has a different impact.

“When I’m doing public art, I feel like you can feel an artist,” Williams said. “That energy is an exchange. … I feel like this is a more intimate way to reach people. You just feel different in front of the painted piece, versus something that’s printed.”