From Dragon Doodle to Panorama: How a Trumbull Student Painted the Coastal Center’s New Mural
Laura Bollert started the Coastal Center’s mural in the summer after her junior year at Trumbull High and finished it in early January 2014, during winter break as a sophomore at the University of Maine. Connecticut Audubon Society photo by Kaylee Weil.
January 9, 2015 – Laura Bollert had never even seen the Milford Point Coastal Center before her first day as a volunteer camp counselor in 2012. She was a rising high school senior, and it seemed a good way to earn community service credits for graduation.
As that first day ended, other counselors were saying goodbye to campers they had just met or texting late afternoon plans to their parents. Laura was agreeing to paint a panoramic mural of Milford Point’s tidal marsh.
“I knew it was going to be a big task,” said Laura, who is now 19 and a sophomore at the University of Maine. “But then all of the stress and fear went out of me and I said, oh – I can do this!”
Right before the recent holidays a TV monitor was removed from the wall to reveal an area of the painting that needed finishing and touch-up, and this week Laura returned to the Coastal Center to complete the mural.
“It is just stunning and beautiful,” said Kaylee Weil, director of the Coastal Center. “Frank Gallo and I couldn’t be more grateful to Laura for her hard work and dedication. We are looking forward to showing it off to everyone who visits.”
Laura, a Trumbull High graduate, said the project started by accident. On that first day as a counselor, she doodled a picture of a dragon on one of the handouts given to the campers. Frank Gallo, the Coastal Center’s associate director, saw it and complimented her on it. Laura had taken after-school drawing and painting classes, and she showed Frank several photographs on her phone of oil paintings she had done.
Frank’s response was: Would you like to paint a mural for us?
Laura said this week she had been too timid and too excited to say no. She and Frank talked about what they wanted to see. She sketched the scene on the wall – a broad view of the marsh, canoes maneuvering through its channels, Ospreys, egrets, cormorants in the foreground. She had never painted with acrylics, a lack of experience that did not ease her nerves. But after several hours she relaxed and the paint flowed.
She worked through the summer and into her senior year. Each day Frank checked on the progress and offered encouragement. In all, she said, it took 75 hours to complete.
“The image came out the way Frank and I envisioned,” she said, “although I embellished in some places.”
Measuring roughly eight feet by 20 feet, the mural graces the eastern wall of the Coastal Center’s main room. The center building is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 4. We invite everyone to stop by and admire Laura’s work.
When you do, look for her signature in the upper left corner. You’ll notice another enhancement just above it – a doodle of a dragon like the one she drew that first day at camp.
