ACQUA alta // FLA

“AGE of ACQUA” refers to the astrological Age of Aquarius, a coming time of humanitarianism and of powerful collectives. Thus, eventually, we will design a way to take care of EVERYONE as we adjust to the rising seas...

Eventually, the business of real estate along the coasts will have no choice but to honor the sacredness of that space between the land and the sea, while helping everyone migrate to higher land. This is the result of a shift in planetary consciousness currently in process.

“ACQUA alta” is an Italian term used for flooding in Venice, just another city on the frontline of global warming... a symbol of empire, of commerce, of ART, and yet also prostrate to an ocean taking back her territory

"ACQUA". . .what an elegant word for water!! (interestingly, Aquarius is associated with the water bearer. . .)

With creative license I apply the term, "ACQUA alta" more universally to FLORIDA and other coastal areas close to my home base in Georgia. . . where sea levels also continue to cause flooding and deep systemic changes both positive and negative. These coastal areas continue to be part of my artistic beat.

(first image) In this piece I have used an image that is part of a free online archive that preserves Florida History (www.floridamemory.com). I discovered a an amazing collection of wet plate photographs by botanist John Kunkel Small who documented Florida from 1916 - 1933.

(second image) This is my own image taken in central FLA, about a year after Hurricane Michael hit the Mexico Beach and Cape San Blas, FLA. I drove for hours from the coast with the trees all bent in one direction, and yet the undergrowth was already showing signs of renewal from the massive destruction.

Both images are photo transfers on ceramics. I call them "ceramic photographs," because they harken back to the time when we printed images. But prints on paper will not withstand floods (as we saw with Hurricane Katrina) and I hope, like pottery shards, these ceramic prints will have a better chance of informing the future as to what our environment once looked like.