From the Daily News:
Rockaway Beach residents took pride in their boardwalk and the elaborately-decorated fiberglass whale that watched over it from Beach 94th St.
But “Whalemina” was washed away in Superstorm Sandy along with large swaths of the boardwalk - another blow to the devastated neighborhood.
Now as city park officials search for ways to reopen parts of the boardwalk, the man who breathed new life into the once-forlorn and broken Central Park Zoo exhibit is pledging to bring Whalemina back in one form or another.
“I said goodbye to the whale, I told children she went back out to sea,” said Geoff Rawling, the artist who spent years decorating her with tiles and glass. “I would like to make her in a more mobile, lightweight fashion so we could move her if another storm comes.”
For years, he adorned it with a blue, white and seagreen mosaic that reflected the local marine life in the Atlantic Ocean and Jamaica Bay.
One of Whalemina’s eyes shone with the sun while the other captured the moon.
“I actually found the tail after the storm,” Rawling said. “My thought was to rebuild.”
8 comments:
Thar she blows....Moby Stavisky!
LOL!
You don't want to be anywhere near Moby Stavisky's blowhole, when she's about to spout.
She nearly blew out the eastern wall of the North Flushing Senior Center!
Actually, the size is correct for Moby Stavisky, but she's definitely not that colorful - she has a deathly pallor.
Way to go Geoff! People asked me where the whale went. did it go back out to sea? I was told about the controversy regarding the original gray whale.
How about you do a bunch and sell them???
Move it to the North Flushing Senior Center, so that Toby Ann can get a good look at herself, when she visits.
Send it to Green-Wood Cemetery.
Good riddance to that tacky eyesore.
We loved that whale. I remember it from the Children's Zoo, but mostly from Rockaway. That's our beach, every summer for over half a century. I just saw a whale off Beach 108 yesterday. Incredible. I hope when they rebuild the new sculpture, it will have a more realistic whale shape. The cartoon shape is actually based on the bloated whales brought in attached to old whaling ships, I read somewhere. I'd love this to look like a healthy whale. I volunteer to help with the mosaic. - Kathy Devine
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