From the very first day that the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and began spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, I have felt completely sick to my stomach. Before I even saw the heartbreaking images of the brown pelicans struggling in the thick muck I was completely heartbroken and furious that this could happen. Then when day two and three and four and five of oil spewing into the Gulf continued, I couldn't believe the news. I couldn't even comprehend the fact that they couldn't control the problem within a few days.
87 days later, BP finally "stopped" the gushing and I had already begun making a series of new paintings in response to my horror at the situation.
It can be extremely complicated to put all of the emotions and anger that I have into a piece of art so I had to brew on it for quite a while. I decided to approach it in the simplest way possible for me. I am in the process of creating an installation of 87 paintings depicting the many animals, fish, birds, crabs and other species that are suffering at the hands of BP. These are still in progress and a few images are shown here. You can see more on my website at joancoxart.com
