I was happily bumping along in my life, painting pretty pictures, until the Gulf Oil Spill occurred on April 20, 2010 with the sinking of the well, Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. By May 5, 2010, the first of the images flooded the media, and for days, all I could do was weep, and paint. Today is July 7, 2010, and still the well leaks out into the Gulf, and it's hurricane season. With every hurricane or tropical storm, they will stop trying to fix the oil gushing out from the sea floor, and just leave- so for 5 days before, and 14 days after. So, for every hurricane, we will get 20 days of uninterrupted flow. The oil clings to the marsh grass. 95% of all marine species living in the Gulf of Mexico spend all or part of their life cycle in Louisiana's wetlands. Louisiana's wetlands are the wintering habitat for milliions of waterfowl and migratory birds whose habitat was already being lost as the wetlands were disappearing. The dispersant that BP is spraying on the water to hide their sins is several hundred times above the lethal level for fish. It has already reached the land as well. I expect the hurricanes will pick that up and throw it on the land, if not rain it down upon the crops and fields. And what will we do when it seeps into the water table? As of July 3, 2010, the Coast Guard passed new regulations making a photographer or blogger subject to a $40,000 fine and a class F felony if they get too close to photograph or blog about what is happening. When in doubt, shut it out.


Update: July 19, 2010. They undid the hush order- so they say. They say they capped the well, but oil is still seeping out of the sea floor. I took photos on July 12 of oil encroaching into fresh water near Lutcher- between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Where the oil is, so will be the Connexit BP sprayed.

When the sky rains black, will the sea turn red?