Newtown Artist’s Work To Benefit Women’s Center Of Southeastern Connecticut

Between July 1 and October 31, a new face greeted visitors and shoppers at Olde Mistick Village in Mystic. Oceana Mystica: Misty, one of the 50 whale sculptures that make up The Whale Trail, sat at the shopping village delighting those who come for to browse, run errands, or simply to take a peek at the 6-foot long, brightly colored beluga.

Designed and created by Marty LaMarche of Newtown, Oceana Mystica: Misty was part of The Whale Trail, a temporary public art exhibit of painted whale sculptures on display in southeastern Connecticut, Rhode Island and even Boston and New York. The sculpture saw thousands of visitors. Many families charted their progress as they went “whale watching” for all 50. The Whale Trail even saw visitors from as far away as the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and New Zealand.

Each whale on The Whale Trail has been sponsored by a business, organization or individual, transformed by a Connecticut artist, and will benefit a non-profit organization upon The Whale Trail’s end at a live auction on November 18. Forty-eight of the 50 whales that have been on display all summer will be auctioned that evening.

Modeled after the hugely popular Cows on Parade, The Whale Trail art event featured Connecticut’s state animal, the sperm whale, as well as the beluga whale. As was true for Cows on Parade, artists not only came up with beautiful and very impressive images for their sculpture, there are also a number of clever names. Tourists this year found themselves searching for sculptures with names like Love Whale Keep Us Together, Get Whale Soon, Whalecome to Mystic, Sea-tacean Celebration, Whale Guarded Secret and even The Yellow Submawhale.

Ms LaMarche is the owner of Tweak Design and Communications, LLC and a member of Connecticut Art Director’s Club.

Earlier this year she told The Newtown Bee that while a painting project such as The Whale Trail initially seemed like foreign territory to her, after receiving an invitation to submit a theme for the event she pondered the suggested themes supplied with the application, and as she did, her own theme began to take shape.

The Whale Trail project is billed as a public art display, subject to interaction from the viewers. With that in mind, she started thinking about what she could do that would have the broadest appeal and be hands-on.

“Whale Centered,” or well centered, became her theme. She envisioned the whale carrying the message of a spiritual, centering journey.

“The picture on the whale is symbolic of everyone’s spiritual journey,” Ms LaMarche told The Bee in May.

On her submission, Ms LaMarche describes her vision of life’s journey depicted by paintings of “rugged terrain to bucolic vistas, meandering rivers and subterranean waterways.”

The compass rose painted on the back of the fiberglass and resin beluga whale Oceana Mystica: Misty, which took her seven weeks to paint, depicts Ms LaMarche’s vision of everyone’s spiritual journey. The design includes vistas of fields, deserts and mountains, as well as a simple finger labyrinth.

Grassy meadows blooming with flowers flow across one side of the beluga in Ms LaMarche’s design.

“Sometimes life is easy,” she said of the meadow, while the desert depicted on the opposite side represents the “dry times in our lives.” The mountains represent life’s struggles and challenges, while the elaborate sun that will highlight the whale’s back is “the divine light everyone has inside.” A compass rose and fleur-de-lis symbolize the directions life can take.

One hundred percent of the proceeds from the sale of Oceana Mystica: Misty will go to the Women’s Center of Southeastern Connecticut. The center, located in New London, strives for a violent-free society by providing services to those affected by sexual assault and domestic violence, public education and prevention programs and influencing public policy.

The November 18 auction will be held at the Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa in Groton. The auction will begin at 7 pm. Admission is $50 per person and includes hors d’oeuvres and an open bar. For reservations, call 860-437-8025. Early bidding forms and phone bidding instructions are available at TheWhaleTrail.com for interested bidders who are unable to attend the auction.

Online bidding for seven of the whales opened on November 10. Photos of all of the whales are available online.

The Whale Trail is presented by Mystic Coast & Country Travel Industry Association and managed by K&M Productions, LLC. For more information, visit the website mentioned above.