They really know how to paint the town.<\/p>\n
A pair of highly talented student artists from Long Island were recently given the opportunity of a lifetime when they transformed their works into a 12-foot-high, 80-foot-wide mural now proudly displayed along a local road on the North Shore.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was the biggest canvas we ever had,\u201d said Glen Cove High School sophomore Giorgina Dondero, 14, to The Post.<\/p>\n
Glen Cove High School sophomores Giorgina Dondero (left) and Nahla Loret Gomez painted a mural on a road in their North Shore town.<\/p>\n
The best friends were invited to paint the wall after entering a local art competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still can\u2019t get over the spectacle of how big it turned out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giorgina and her 15-year-old bestie, Nahla Loret Gomez, also a 10th-grader at Glen Cove, had entered an art competition at the end of the past school year, and their super skills with a brush caught the eye of the city\u2019s beautification commission.<\/p>\n
Nahla\u2019s illustration of a monarch butterfly over a potted plant took first place at the event and was printed on t-shirts as part of a campaign by the local government, while Giorgina\u2019s work of a tree-filled road \u2014 inspired by nearby Morgan Park, where she has done beach cleanups \u2014 was a close runner-up.<\/p>\n
Glen Cove\u2019s government then recruited the two pals to paint a modified design of Giorgina\u2019s piece, with nods to Nahla\u2019s work, for a lengthy stretch on Mill Hill Road last month.<\/p>\n
The mural was inspired by Giorgina\u2019s painting of a tree-lined street.<\/p>\n
The mural contains references to Nahla\u2019s drawing of a monarch butterfly \u2014 which Glen Cove printed on t-shirts after it won the competition.<\/p>\n
Nahla said the volunteer opportunity opened up a whole new world for her.<\/p>\n
\u201cArt was kind of something that I kept to myself. I was just kind of doing doodling on paper,\u201d she said. \u201cI never joined competitions, ever, because I was very shy.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I would love to do more things like this, it brought me out of my shell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nahla and Giorgina at work on their mural in Glen Cove.<\/p>\n
Giorgina painting a flower on the wall in August.<\/p>\n
The finished product vividly showed Glen Cove in all four seasons and represented \u201cjust something absolutely beautiful \u2014 and how nature can affect us all in a similar emotional response,\u201d Giorgina said.<\/p>\n
It definitely was a labor of love.<\/p>\n
The girls got to work in the midst of a miserably muggy August heatwave, where temperatures reached close to 100 degrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was definitely some summer heat stroke trauma that brought us closer together,\u201d quipped Giorgina, who wants to attend the California Institute of the Arts for college.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we really developed a deeper connection when we worked together on this piece of art that was inspired by us both.\u201d<\/p>\n
The girls weren\u2019t alone in conquering what seemed like a gargantuan task. A local muralist in the area caught wind of the project and volunteered supplies, also offering the two students some lessons on how to handle such a large undertaking.<\/p>\n