\u201cThe water is the life blood of Mother Earth. The water that I carry is the blood of Mother Earth. The water is the life blood of our bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Susan Gallo sang the Algonquin water prayer, in its original indigenous version, each time a volunteer applied a handprint to the boardwalk-facing mural on the wall of the vacant Hebrew Academy of Long Beach last week. The song honored the nearby ocean, which is also celebrated in the artwork.<\/p>\n
The building-length painting is a collection of handprints of all sizes overlaid on three crashing waves. Vinyl art prints, supplied by Long Beach\u2019s Artists in Partnership and showcasing local artists, adorn plywood planks covering the former school\u2019s broken windows. Around each corner, on the sides of the building, which has been shuttered for nearly a decade, mural artists were invited to create their own water-themed works.<\/p>\n
Susan Gallo, a Long Beach resident and a home-school teacher, explained that her daughters \u2014 Avellina, 13, Fiora, 11, and Toni, 6 \u2014 first took interest in the environment after a snowstorm three years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a home-school mom, so I have the liberty to take our lessons into life,\u201d Gallo said. \u201cWe were driving down the road and the snow is melting, and all that trash that was there \u2014 they said, \u2018Mom, where does that go?\u2019\u201d That sparked an ongoing interest in community cleanup.<\/p>\n
At the March 18 City Council meeting, Gallo, along with her daughters and other students, made a request to install a 400-square-foot bioswale \u2014 a natural water-filtration system that uses native plants to trap microplastics and pollutants \u2014 along a section of Grand Boulevard. <\/p>\n
Council members were optimistic about the project, though it would require significant planning and coordination input from engineers and designers at the state Department of Environmental Conservation as well as the city Department of Public Works. In the meantime, Gallo and her students created the mural project as a fundraiser for the bioswale. Her husband, Darren Gallo, owns the property management company currently in charge of the old Hebrew Academy grounds, making it a serendipitous location for environmentally focused artistic expression.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing,\u201d Johanna Mathieson-Ellmer<\/a>, director of Artists in Partnership<\/a>, said of the project. \u201cIt just shows the power of art, community, purpose \u2014 all of the things that people get excited about and want to get behind. It makes you feel that you\u2019re connected to something bigger than yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n For three hours a day from April 6 to 10, residents passing by, artists, Gallo and her daughters completed the series of murals across the building\u2019s facade. The Gallos solicited donations from anyone walking along the boardwalk, whether they left a handprint or not. \u201cIt\u2019s fantastic,\u201d resident Alison Orgonas said after applying her handprint. \u201cI love when kids are aware of the planet and doing the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n With the building covered in artwork perfectly suited to a City by the Sea, Gallo will hold a final \u201cblessing of the water\u201d on Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event will kick off an Earth Week Art Trail throughout Long Beach, with artistic workshops and displays at a number of locations starting next Wednesday \u2014 Earth Day \u2014 and continuing until the following Sunday.<\/p>\n