18" x 24", Acrylic on watercolor paper.
Firstly, let me explain the BC 050510, part of the title. Anyone who has received a business card from me has realized that they are all handcrafted. Basically they are experimental paintings like this one that I then grid out and cut up in order to give each person I meet a piece of actual art. I've been doing this for over a year, although I've not yet uploaded any of the BC images here, until this one. This is my BC 050510, which means 'business cards May 5th 2010', each individual card is always numbered so if someone somehow collected them all at some point they could reassemble them. Will any be? I doubt it, but that isn't really the point, its a physical piece of art for the recipient, and this set is being created for the Artrages 2010 event that I am going to this weekend in Boston.
Now the piece in itself:
This is the image that has been stuck in my mind over the past days since I've learned of the massive oil spill from an off shore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Currently the damage is expected to exceed the Exxon Valdez spill off the coast of Alaska from 21 years ago, an ecosystem which is still not fully recovered. This spill is a death sentence to life in that area, not only the creatures of the ocean but the people who make a living as fishermen, the beaches who cater to tourists, and the business that is brought into communities through the food and recreation of those areas, it is all in extreme danger.
Besides the loss of jobs in an already struggling economy, the loss of lives as food and habitat are poisoned by a fossil fuel that we as a civilization should no longer be reliant on. There are wars fought over this black crud that spews from the ground, people die by the hundreds, yet oil companies still drill at Gaia, our Earth, our mother, in search of this relic of the dinosaurs. Why are we still reliant upon that which kills so many? If the pursuit of oil profits was put aside, we'd have long surpassed the need for crude oil. If companies and the fat cats at the wheel were not so intent on drilling for money, then we would not be stuck in what is at this point a dark aged resources hunt.
In my eyes, allowing this course of action to continue has all of us saying the same thing, and that is "fuck you nature, we'd rather kill the very planet and life beneath our feet and around us, then to change our ways and find alternatives."
I ask that we all, myself included, seek new ways to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel, take a bus, or subway instead of your car, or at least carpool. Ride a bike, walk, flap your arms and fly. Do something, and maybe we can change the overall message that we are allowing to continue. Dont stand by and let this continue, voice your concerns and disagreements, and let us all work toward a better tomorrow, together.
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