The Spirit of the Gulf

I read this post on Dan's blog about The Spirit of the Gulf challenge begun by Suzanne McDermott. Suzanne challenged "every artist who receives this invitation to make one drawing, painting, collage — or to use whatever medium you work in — to create a piece of beauty with love and gratitude to honor some scene or living being in the Gulf. This is a consciousness raising opportunity."  Dan is passing this challenge along to " All of you. You don't need to be connected to the Gulf in any way to feel the impact of this man-made disaster, or to love nature and feel the pain of this violation. I am cordially inviting every reader of this blog to participate, if you care to." And he is right. I have never been to New Orleans or the Gulf coast of Louisiana yet I still feel the pain of this disaster. As I sit here in our beautiful southern mountains my heart is breaking for the unspeakable tragedy that has struck the people, wildlife, waters and landscape of the Gulf region.

The Spirit of the Gulf challenge is to depict some living aspect of the Gulf of Mexico before the oil disaster. I went to Google street view and found this scene of marshland in Venice LA, an area shown on the news' reports as being affected by the oil spill. Even though I have never been to this area, the beauty of the marshy waterway is familiar to me in its similarity to my much loved South Carolina coastal marsh scenes. And of course, as Suzanne pointed out, it is all one sea. This disaster in the Gulf is not just one company's problem, or one state's problem, but a larger problem that belongs to everyone. It is our problem. The real challenge now is to be a part of the solution. And it isn't just about reducing or finding alternatives to the gas we put into our cars or the fuel to heat our homes, although these are very important issues. It is also the seemingly little things that can add up to a bigger problem.

In addition to the watercolor sketch above I am also working on a painting in oil of this very same scene. As soon as it is dry enough I will post it here as a part of my 100 painting challenge. I plan to offer it for sale as well, perhaps on Ebay this time, with the proceeds going to the National Wildlife Federation.