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photo by Talia Hodge
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photo by Talia Hodge
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Art can completely transform a space — and that’s what Sabertooth Public Art hopes to accomplish through its murals.
“It’s a safe place of pride and a landmark for a neighborhood,” says Elisa Gargarella, who co-founded Sabertooth with Marissa McClellan.
The two artists collaborate on projects customized for a location, focusing each piece on creative placemaking, which means they’re incorporating the location’s story and history into the design.
A perfect example is the mural in Bounce Innovation Hub’s generator space. The duo brainstormed with Bounce employees and researched the space before designing it. The mural has monstera and snake plant leaves, which symbolize good fortune and persistence, respectively. The artists were inspired by the planters that were already in the space.
“Snake plants just grow no matter what. And that generator space has to do with growth — growth in your entrepreneurial business,” McClellan says.
The circles in the mural represent marbles, which are featured in glass separators that are a part of custom desks in the space and also harken back to the history of marble-making in Akron.
The creative process began with the women working on collages featuring shapes they planned to use in the mural, and McClellan took over the design
process, getting feedback from Gargarella. They then spent a weekend painting, using bold pinks and purples, with complementing orange and green hues, to liven the space and foster people’s bold creative ideas.
“I hope that they feel excited. I hope that they feel joy,” McClellan says. “I hope that they feel encouraged and enthusiastic about what they’re there to do.”
The two enjoy collaborating with Bounce, and they are working on more murals for its headquarters that represent its pillars to be done in the new year. Other upcoming Sabertooth pieces include its second installation for an ArtSparks performance.
“I like working with other organizations because it’s inspiring for us,” Gargarella says. “We also love to align ourselves with people who are doing good things in our society, so collaborating for us is sort of second nature, because we have a reciprocity in learning and serving by creating.”
Sabertooth has been a vessel for not only community growth through creative placemaking but also for McClellan and Gargarella to grow through collaboration.
“We both have evolved as artists individually,” Gargarella says, “but also are really in a mega flow when we create together.” sabertoothpublicart.com // AS
