Stow Artists Unveil New Mural in Munroe Falls to Celebrate River Exploration
Drivers headed South along state Route 91 in Munroe Falls might notice a new splash of color brightening up their commute. On the left, just past Brust Park at 154 N. Main St., is a shipping container adorned with floaties and native fish and insects, like the damselfly.
It took Stow-based artists Kimmy Henderson and Anne Geraghty 33 hours over three days to create the painting — the first public mural, they say, in Munroe Falls.
The large-scale painting was commissioned by Cuyahoga Falls' Float the River, an ecotourism company that rents out inner tubes for people to use to drift down the Cuyahoga River. The painted shipping container sits at Float the River's drop-in point.
At 6 p.m. Friday, residents are invited to join the owners, artists, and some of the area's elected officials at the site for a ribbon cutting ceremony at the site.
During the event, Henderson said people are welcome to get their picture taken with the butterfly on the door of the container, part of Henderson's Bipolar Butterfly project.
At the ceremony, there will be two giveaways of Bipolar Butterfly merch packages that include decals and prints, and an 18-inch garden stake with a butterfly on top.
The mural is the first of its kind in the city, but not the only one that Henderson and Geraghty have created under the name Mobile Creatives Ohio. The corrugated shed at the Stow City Center, behind the fire department and next to the SKiP playground, bears their work. So, too, does Stow gym Tyrannosaurus Flex, and Up Front Art Space in Cuyahoga Falls.
TJ Mack and Savannah Snyder, the husband and wife team running Float the River, said that they were drawn to Henderson and Geraghty's work after having seen it before in the Falls and in Stow.
"We were seeing them all around town," Snyder said, "on planters, and the traffic boxes and everything, and so we were like, wow, that's such a nice way to beautify a space."
She encourages her patrons to take pictures with the mural when they're dropped off for their trip down the Cuyahoga.
The mural isn't the end of their plans.
Mack said they'd like to use art to further enhance the area. Introducing native plant species is something Snyder said they'd like to explore.
Henderson is looking forward to officially unveiling the mural to the city.
"I really hope to encourage more public art," she said, "because it just adds a vibrancy to the public space."
Photography by: Kimmy Henderson and Anne Geraghty