Middletown's Vibrant New Mural Underscores Water's Importance

A giant new mural celebrating the relationship between man and water now adorns the brick-face building that borders Middletown's Luis Lopez Community Garden downtown.

"Passionate Waters," created by Willimantic-based artists Melica Bloom and Benjamin Keller, was raised Friday evening on the former Community Health Center Dental office at Green and Main streets.

It's the remarkable form of a purple-robed "everywoman" who holds a large droplet of clear blue water aloft.

MAC650 Art Gallery artist Carolyn Reeves managed the project, which began from a March exhibit that focused on the "vital relationship between humankind and water," according to the mural plaque.

The Middletown Commission on the Arts and Community Health Center supplied grant funding for the plywood mural expected to stay up for a decade, according to Bloom.

MBK Murals, according to its website, began in the late summer of 2012. "There was a fusion of talents in Northeastern Connecticut. Inspired by great opportunity and many blank walls, we began tackling giant outdoor canvases with gallons and full of paint.

"After donating hundreds of hours of time to paint five large-scale murals across the town of Willimantic, we realized that we had accidentally tapped into a market that we never knew existed; the market for high quality hand-painted murals. Organic turned into organized, and MBK Murals was born."

International World Water Day is held annually on March 22 in order to focus attention on the importance of fresh water and advocate for the sustainable management of fresh water resources.

In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development recommended a day of celebration and The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating March 22, 1993, as the first World Water Day.