Storm Drain Creatures Emerge on Grand Avenue

Vibrant fish, turtles, and other water critters have been popping up out of storm drains across New Haven this summer, reminding New Haveners to keep their trash away from the drains.

The last batch of these ​“runoff art” creatures came to life on Thursday in front of the Christopher Columbus Family Academy at the corner of Grand Avenue and Fillmore Street.

The runoff art street murals seek to engage youth and other community members in water pollution and environmental education.

The murals were created by a team of workers with the Lots of Fish project, whi h seeks to educate youth and other community members about water pollution and the environment through art.

On Thursday, Lots of Fish Director Joann Moran supervised three high school students who are employed by the Youth@Work program for three sidewalk murals outside the school.

Yahayra Llacxaguanga, who helped paint the Grand Avenue runoff art on Thursday, is going into her junior year at the Sound School. Llacxaguanga said she has not been able to take visual arts classes in school, but sings and used to play the flute when she was younger. Llacxaguanga’s interest in painting and drawing was sparked by her uncle, who is an artist in Ecuador. She started painting and sketching often in her free time when she was 10.

Trinity Ford, who is entering 10th grade at Co-op high school, is in choir and participates in other after-school art programs there.

Rising Wilbur Cross junior Jordan Wabahati attends ACES Educational Center for the Arts (ECA), where he plays the flute and percussion instruments. ​“I’m a musician, so that’s the only art I do. I don’t know how to paint, I don’t know how to draw. It’s not my thing, but I like it,” Wabahati said.

Llacxaguanga, Ford, and Wabahati have been working on the runoff art since mid-July. They arrived at 8 Thursday morning to get started on a yellow starfish wrapped around a stop sign outside Columbus Academy.

Later Thursday morning they moved on to paint a green fish whose mouth opens into a storm drain. Inside the fish’s mouth, a message in white paint tells passersby to ​“Dump no waste. Drains to river.”

At 1 p.m., they finished the storm drain fish, painting on its eyes and retouching the mouth.

The design was based on an old online submission someone sent in to Lots of Fish.

“Oh wow! It’s nice!” marveled Adolfo Alba. Alba (pictured) works down the street from Columbus Academy at La Tapatia takeout. ​“This is to respect all people so this is nice. This is good luck. It’s very very important.”

“They’re real nice. I really like the colors,” said Fair Havener Mirriam Aldaromdo.

Ricardo Colon said he likes the new runoff art as well. ​“The point of it is helping Mother Nature, I guess. It’s nice.”

According to Moran, this summer they’ve painted 20 neighborhood storm drains, ten rain barrels, a couple of murals and school zone crosswalks and storm drains, as well as a few banners.

Moran and the three students added a clear top coat of paint for a 32-foot-long banner they plan to hang over Grand Avenue.

Moran made the banner from old reclaimed banners that they painted over with schools of fish and swirling waves. The painters worked on the banner throughout the summer whenever there was enough time and enough space to unfurl it in full. The banner reads ​“What Goes in the Ground, Goes in the Sound!”

The Lots of Fish team had only one hour to complete the final storm drain mural. The final design is by local artist Yvonne Gordon-Moser. The ​“one hour masterpiece,” as Moran described it, is a mandala depicting a tree with its roots leading to the drain.

“It’s a whole circle of life,” Gordon-Moser said.

“I felt like it represents how we have such an impact on the earth and water and how what we do to the earth affects the whole planet and us as human beings. It’s diverse, it’s all of us- every color, creed, and religion,” she added.

Gordon-Moser called and later zoomed in to chat and direct the Lots of Fish crew as they painted her runoff mural design. ​“I thought it was important to participate in this project because art speaks to young people. It’s healing and during this pandemic I felt it could be something that the kids could really participate in,” Gordon-Moser said. ​“The kids need something to do to stay connected, and art has a way of doing that for them.”

The Lots of Fish team finished the final runoff art design just in time to go home at 2 p.m. Gordon-Moser plans to come back next Sunday to add some finishing touches.

Moran (pictured) said her passions are democracy, peace, and the environment. She said she hopes that Lots of Fish can serve as a model for many other cities to adopt.

“When someone sees art and kids doing it, they read about pollution and runoff which no one would normally go read about,” Moran said. She said public exposure and education about the environment are essential to cleaning up the waterways in New Haven and across the world.