Ground Water
2014

Acrylic ink and water on frosted mylar

50”X36”   and  36”X36”

Disturbed by the water crisis in California, I felt the need to talk about water through art making.  As usual it didn’t turn out to be linear.  I have been reading about the way fracking can contaminate ground water, and for decades we’ve been aware that agribusiness use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides pollutes our ground water.  Recently I’ve read that because of the series of drought years Central Valley and Salinas Valley wells are dropping dramatically – up to 50 feet, or in one case 80 feet, in the past couple of years.  So deeper wells are being drilled – as if this could continue forever.  Another interesting phenomenon is happening in the Salinas Valley:  drawing more out of the aquifer is sucking salt water from the Pacific Ocean into the fresh ground water.  I don’t know if there are any ways we can reverse any of these issues.

I set about asking what inside the body constitutes ground water.  I came up with multiple answers:  The blood, the cerebro-spinal fluid, the interstitial fluid, and so on.  With this body of work I am exploring overlays between multiple ground waters of the body and the connection between them.  This is not political art.  It is an invitation to become aware and to become curious.  Whatever we are made of is what nature is made of.  Whatever processes happen in nature happen inside of us.  How much are we clueless about?  What happens when we are clueless?  What havoc are we wreaking inside and out by being oblivious?

What keeps appearing in the art is the interconnectedness of fluid systems.  Ultimately we stumble into beauty because – I don’t know – it’s there to be uncovered.  We need reasons, apparently, to change our ways.  Why not the preservation of what is beautiful?  The infinite ways that water and flow sustain life is a good reason.