Georgia artist creates, restores murals decorating historic places
Published 11:19 am Sunday, June 26, 2016
- Andrew Sabori stands in downtown Lakeland, Georgia where he has been restoring and cleaning more than a dozen murals throughout the city. Photo by Dean Poling | The Valdosta Daily Times
LAKELAND, Ga. — Andrew Sabori has been everywhere.
And the mural artist has left his mark wherever he goes.
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He designed 1960s posters touting the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin for concerts at the Fillmore West.
He’s painted murals in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Lake Tahoe, Reno, Augusta, 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, James Brown’s office, Asbury Park, Broadway, Julliard and the Apollo Theatre.
He resurrected a Great Depression mural that was once displayed inside of a building on Ellis Island.
Sabori now lives in Augusta, Georgia. He has spent recent weeks repairing and restoring the murals that decorate the Lanier County town in the Southern Central part of the state. He is also offering art classes, is expected to paint an original mural for Lakeland in coming months and is scheduled to bring the recreated Ellis Island mural to Lakeland.
While restoring murals, Sabori hews to the artist’s original style, he said. In the Lakeland case, the original style belongs to South Carolina-based artist Ralph Waldrop.
In the late 1990s, as part of the Let’s Improve Lanier’s Appearance program, lifelong Lakeland resident Nell Patten Roquemore initiated a move to place historic murals along the walls of existing Lakeland buildings. The murals depict the 1925 era when Mill Town became Lakeland.
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Georgia has designated Lakeland as the state’s Historic Mural City.
“They’re terrific,” Sabori said of the Lakeland murals.
He said the three-dimensional element is unique. The original artist, Waldrop, often cut figures and vehicles out then bolted them to the walls of the painted backgrounds.
Sabori cleaned the murals, made minor repairs and restorations. That’s necessary work in a small downtown where murals can be found in more than three dozen locations, said Sandy Sanders, president of the Lakeland-Lanier County Chamber of Commerce. The chamber found Sabori for the mural clean-up.
Though he prefers working on his original murals, Sabori knows how to adapt to repair or restore other murals. Or re-create a mural.
When he learned of the lost Ellis Island mural by artist Edward Laning, Sabori set out to copy it.
After visiting Ellis Island to seek his family’s American roots, Sabori discovered a black-and-white photograph of Laning’s lost mural.
The photograph showed a mural dedicated to the importance of immigrants in America.
Titled “The Role of Immigrants in the Industrial Development of America,” the mural illustrated immigrants as miners, railroad workers, going west, working in fields and foundries, getting off the boats, Sabori said.
Laning painted the mural in 1935, Sabori said. It was painted as part of the Works Progress Administration programs during the Great Depression.
The mural was exhibited in a portion of Ellis Island rarely visited by the public. A storm collapsed a roof, damaging the mural, and the mural was gone by the 1950s.
The mural represented people from numerous nations who came to America and became part of the nation’s fabric.
Based on the photograph and research, working with assistants, Sabori re-created the mural. His wife kept him inspired and ensured he stayed true to the mission.
“She would say, you’re pairing like you instead of Laning,” Sabori said. “I had to go back and repaint the area in Laning’s style.”
Since its completion, the mural has been displayed in several venues. It will come to Lakeland later this year, Sabori said.
“Immigrants have been involved in every aspect of American history,” Sabori said. “The mural has a lot of history in it.”
