Lately I have been thinking about water. Its been raining a lot. And a lot of politicians seem to be talking again about the pros and cons of Victoria's raw sewage going into the ocean. I like the rain. I like the way weather in Victoria has a personality of its own. One minute it is pouring rain and the next or in the same minute it is sunny. I prefer this to the relentless rain of Vancouver. The artist that comes to mind when I think of water is Bill Viola and in particular his video
The Crossing (although many of Viola's videos are about water). Another artist is
Pat Steir whose waterfalls series reveals water falling down the surface of the painting. Water is so important. If you haven't seen
The Story of Bottled Water (by the author who wrote The Story of Stuff), it is worth checking out. People are still drinking bottled water. What's with that? Victoria has some of the best water in the world and yet I still see people walking around with bottled water. Artist and VISA alumni
Marlene Jess did a social
sculpture piece about the drinking water in Victoria where she bottled water from Victoria's public water fountains and labelled the glass bottles with the name of location from where she procured the water. She had a water cart and 'sold' the water for free. The project was also done in Portland. Another video on this topic is
The Cycle of Insanity: The True Story of Water, a beautifully animated video. Years ago I saw a documentary about the
Colorado River that concluded with an image showing how the river no longer reaches the ocean. I have never forgotten this fact. It was so contrary to what I learned in high school geography: all rivers eventually flow into the ocean. Now I learn that only one out of four rivers in the world reach the ocean. Things I hear on the news always seem to find a way into my art work without me really having a chance to think about it. One of the series I just started has to do with the Colorado River drying up. I saw that documentary over 15 years ago and the final image of the dry river has stayed in my imagination all these years. The image below is the first in this new series.
