Scott Nurkin got out his ladder and paints after Dean Smith died in 2015, channeling his grief into a portrait of the legendary UNC basketball coach on a gas station wall on the Orange-Chatham county line.
Dot by thousands of dots, Nurkin captured Smith’s arched brow, the deep wrinkles on his forehead, and the slight smile setting off the twinkle in his eyes.
The final touch was a blue argyle-patterned background reminiscent of the jerseys that UNC alumnus and fashion designer Alexander Julian created for Smith’s Tar Heels basketball team in the early 1990s…