Saginaw Sagnasty or Saginawesome? Artist votes with mural Artist looks to bring focus on city's growing artistic community

By Gus Burns The Saginaw News SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) -- Sagnasty. The nickname evokes a gritty, tough image and is a source of pride for some. It's also telling of Saginaw's troubled economy, surplus of abandoned homes and history of crime. Most who live in or near Saginaw have used the name in a derogatory manner at one time or another; others do so endearingly. Eric Schantz, a muralist and graffiti artist, thinks there are better ways to portray his city. "Everybody knows it's a nasty little town," he said. "But giving people new words, new phrases, it shows people that not everybody thinks it's a bad place to live." To combat the "Sagnasty" image, several of Schantz's murals, including his latest, which he completed last month beneath the Andersen Bridge along Court Street, focus on a more positive portrayal of Saginaw and use slogans like "Saginawesome" and "Saginaw Love." "If I did a Sagnasty mural, tons of people would get their pictures in front of it, I know they would," Schantz said. "But I want people to know the arts are here, and there are people working to make it a better city." Beneath the bridge, as cars rumble above, graffiti has long been abundant, appearing on the massive concrete cylindrical supports that prop up the span over the Saginaw River. In the past, it's been a messy collage created by a series of vandals, a confusing amalgamation of nicknames, gang signs, cryptic and often profane messages and a signing board for lovers. Schantz said he wanted to mutate the colorful chaos into an art piece that people could be proud of, that had a positive message, that passersby could have their pictures taken next to. On the west-facing section of one of the supports, Schantz, with artist friends James Hughes, 24, and Zach Miller, both of Saginaw, covered and blended their paint with existing graffiti. Hours later, they emerged from the shaded underbelly of the bridge with "Saginawesome" painted in their wake. Civic organizations and the Riverfront Development Commission in recent years have engaged in cleanup efforts to remove graffiti along the river near Old Saginaw City with its focus on the West Side docks and under the Andersen Bridge. Schantz said the typical reaction to graffiti is to paint over it in a solid color, which he said is a mistake. "Painting over it with a blank color actually encourages more graffiti. People want to be the first to get their name on it," rather than treating it as a "respected art piece," Schantz said. Published: Tue, Aug 2, 2011