Original artwork - Matters of Conscience series
The On April 19, 2016, 9.92 inches of rain feel in Houston, its second rainiest day on record. On July 12, 2016, 10 inches fell overnight in Ashland, WI. And, in the Washington, D.C. metro area, on July 30, 2016, 6.5 inches fell in Ellicott City, MD in a two-hour period. Similar deluges have recently been experienced in Paris, Bavaria, and Macedonia – this is a global phenomenon. Lives have been lost, damage to property has been extensive, and the heavy rains flushed pollution, sediment, and excess nutrients (which create “dead zones” of depleted oxygen) into the waters upon which we depend. While no single storm or flash flood can be attributed directly to global warming, changing climate conditions are at least partly responsible for the recent trend. Because warmer air can hold more moisture, we can expect more of the same in the months and years to come. This artwork – Deluge-Flash Flood – is the fifth in my series on climate change. The figure was appropriated from William Adolphe-Bouguereau’s 1884 artwork appropriately entitled La Leton Difficile (Hard Lesson).