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Winter can be a dreary season, but this one will be a little brighter in Grandview Heights thanks to a project led by Sofie Markle, a 17-year-old local artist.
Markle was selected to create artwork for the Grandview Hop on Sept. 25. The street festival that features art, pop-up vendors, food and music and is held along Grandview Avenue between First and Third avenues.
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Her canvas: a blade from one of the city of Grandview Heights' snowplows.
Markle is the youngest artist commissioned to create artwork at the Hop, said Henrietta Cartwright, a Grandview resident who coordinates 5columns.org, a local nonprofit art group.
The plow project follows a similar effort led by Columbus-area graffiti artist Justin Withrow at the 2019 Grandview Hop.
"We had to put things on hold for a year because of the pandemic," Cartwright said.
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Last year's slate of Hop events was cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions. The Hop returned for a limited 2021 run in August and September.
"It was such an honor when Henrietta asked me to take part in the project at the Grandview Hop," Markle said. "I liked the idea of getting younger kids involved in the project and being able to do something for my community."
The snowplow was set up on Haines Avenue, just off Grandview Avenue.
Markle said she decided on a recycling theme for her project.
"I decided to paint a depiction of the earth on the plow and invite younger children to come up and stencil in stars around it," she said. "For those kids who were too young to handle the spray can, I created rubber stars they could apply to the plow."
She then painted the stars to add color to the stencils.
One of her goals was to help inspire young children's interest in art and encourage them to explore their own creativity, Markle said.
The 5columns effort serves to promote public art in the community and the community's interaction with art, Cartwright said.
"Our mission statement is to create unexpected, joyful interactive art and make it accessible to everyone," she said.
In previous years, the group sponsored projects at Stevenson Elementary in Grandview that brought artists to the school to work with students on creating art that incorporated and were displayed on five metal columns installed on the school's front lawn.
Markle, a senior, said her own interest in art blossomed when she entered high school and enjoys seeing where her creativity takes her.
"I don't really do a lot of planning when I'm working on an art project," she said. "It's hard to explain, but it kind of ends up going in directions I didn't necessarily expect. That's part of the fun."
Along with acrylic and chalk-pastel painting, Markle said she enjoys creating elaborate dioramas.
"I like using a lot of colorful materials to create a scene in a diorama," she said. "It's fun using materials you might not usually think of using in an art project. It opens up your imagination."
Along with art, Markle said she enjoys music and is thinking of pursuing a dual art/music major in college.
The Grandview Hop piece was her first public art project, although she also has been commissioned to create a mural at a home on Hilo Lane in Grandview.