WATERLOO

What Concetta Morales wants to know about Waterloo's five Sullivan brothers, one can't get out of a history book.

It can only be obtained from the minds, memories and hearts of the people of Waterloo. That's what the Des Moines artist is coming here for this week.

She's conducting a series of meetings with members of the Sullivan family, elementary and high school students and the community at large on ideas for a commemorative mosaic on the brothers who fought and died together during World War II. The mosaic will be located inside the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center.

Two public sessions on the project will be from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. today, and 8 to 9:30 a.m. Friday at the convention center. In addition, Morales will meet with members of the Sullivan family and art students at Grant Elementary and East High schools.

"What I plan to do is show the folks previous works of mine … and also get them thinking about themes related to the Sullivan brothers, patriotism and heroism and what the family actually meant to them as Waterloo and Iowa residents," Morales said.

"I could pretty much read in books about what they did," she said, but "it's really important to get a feeling for what the community members think of them and all that they represent, especially in terms of what happened on September 11."

Morales has a personal appreciation for military service and the events of Sept. 11. Her sister has spent 18 years in the Navy and is a lieutenant aboard the carrier USS Bataan. Equipped with a 600-bed hospital, it was one of the first ships to respond to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York.

Her sister is sending her research information on each of the Navy ships commissioned in the brothers' name, including the current USS The Sullivans, a Navy guided missile destroyer, which was the target of an aborted terrorist attack linked to those which killed 17 sailors aboard its sister ship, the USS Cole, and the Sept. 11 attacks.

At the sessions in Waterloo, Morales said, "We'll talk about different aspects of their lives, whether it's childhood, or the core family theme that they all stuck together. … What I plan to do is draw some of their feelings out." Some universal themes, such as family, country and patriotism, "were applicable in the '40s and are applicable to the current situation."

Each of those individual contributions add to the entire work, much in the same way as a mosaic is made of individual pieces of stone or ceramic tile.

It's a process similar to that which Morales used with her other public artwork subjects, ranging from Iowa native and former U.S. Vice President Henry Wallace, to Hall of Fame baseball player and humanitarian Roberto Clemente.

It is the beginning of a year-long process, expected to culminate in a dedication of the mosaic on Nov. 13, 2002, the 60th anniversary of the sinking of the Sullivans' ship, the USS Juneau, off Guadalcanal.

The mosaic would be installed along the walls inside the Five Sullivan Brothers convention center. Promoters of the project hope to involve as many people as possible.

The City Council has approved a $37,000 donation of city hotel-motel tax revenues for the project, to be paid incrementally as the project progresses. The work is supported by the Waterloo Center for the Arts, the Grout Museum, the Waterloo Convention & Visitors Bureau, Holiday Inn Convention Center and Main Street Waterloo.