Untitled

Gail Werner

Local artist Gail Werner was chosen to paint a mural for Long Beach Walls (FKA POW! WOW! Long Beach) 2016 street art festival. The artist identifies with her Native American background and is the foundation of her artwork. Werner’s tribal affiliation is with the Cupeño, Luiseño, and Kumeyaay tribes located in Southern California. Inspired by the ritual songs of her tribe called ‘bird songs,’ she created her mural design to showcase her heritage. The context of the bird songs is creation and migration of the birds. The artist explains that people migrate after the creator dies. Werner incorporated all the elements a bird sees when it migrates: mountains, deserts, and the day and night sky. Sometimes the bird returns to its place of origin to reconnect, the journey is a natural cycle of life. On the top half of the mural, Werner also illustrated pictographs of rock art commonly found in Southern California.