SRQ Daily Interview

Hot off the presses: new article in SRQ's Daily "Weekend" Edition, by Jake Coleman, who interviewed me recently.

http://www.srqmagazine.com/JMailer/showMassMail.cfm?masID=3069

"9527" Mural 2012 Sarasota Chalk Festival

A new mural in Sarasota, FL, created by artist Erin Johnson as part of the 2012 Sarasota Chalk Festival’s “Going Vertical” art. During the Sarasota Chalk Festival from Oct. through Nov. , Erin painted the mural on the back of the Chalk Fest headquarters on Orange Ave in Sarasota, by historic Burns Square.

“I was happy to have been approached in Spring 2012 by leadership of the Chalk Fest, who loved the 'Corexit' digital piece I created (in Zbrush and Photoshop) in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster,” Erin said. “I was asked to create a mural based on the piece, which I reasoned would be an excellent way to cultivate greater public awareness regarding the Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill/dispersant issues.”

During the Chalk Fest, which highlights the art of numerous famed artists from around the globe, Erin was constantly asked by artists, fans and festival-goers, “What does the mural mean?”

“It somehow slips people’s minds that circa 2005-6, the Sarasota area’s gulf waters were affected by severe red tide. With the Gulf of Mexico marine ecosystem already being damaged by decades of chemical runoff from needless fertilizers, phosphates, etc, and other types of man-made pollution, with massive sea-bottom “dead zones” being researched by scientists, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 only worsened the situation. The dispersant effectively blindfolds the public to the extent of the disaster by diluting the oil into the water column, thus reducing direct observer visibility, but the public is also in the dark regarding the toxicity of the dispersant itself. It is known that the chemicals in the dispersants, such as Corexit, contain cancer causing agents, endocrine disruptors, respiratory, skin, eye and kidney toxins. The effects of millions of gallons of toxic dispersant chemicals on gulf marine life, on all levels of the marine food chain, and particularly on the smaller creatures, which build the support system for our larger underwater friends, is largely ignored, the effects unknown (pending further research by scientists).

“Siesta Beach in Sarasota became the #1 beach in the USA after the gulf spill, but tourists and locals alike appear to oblivious to the disaster. It’s business as usual. We need to take a much closer look at what is really in the water. We also need to take a look at the sources of these contaminants, particularly the manufacturers and how they make billions peddling toxic chemical variants which are disruptive to Mother Earth’s life-forms.”