The pelican

First of all let me say that this post makes me terribly sad and proud at the same time.

On the 20th of April of last year BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Estimated 205 million gallons were released into the Gulf over the next months because different attempts to control the spill failed. Not before the 19th of September the well was declared "dead".

"Dead" is a good keyword. A disaster that big affects the whole nature, the ocean, beaches, animal wildlife, people's health and their livelihood.

At the moment the world seems to be hit by a different catastrophe every other week, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods. Sometimes it feels we can only deal with one a time. The Haiti earthquake, the oil spill, the floods in Pakistan, now we are all staring towards Japan, thinking of the people over there ... and let's be honest, of ourselves, in fear of how the radiation might affect us.

So why did I pick the oil spill for this post?

A dear friend of mine is an artist. You have heard about her before, in my tribute to Merlin on this blog. Her name is Dawn and she makes the most beautiful miniature paintings for jewelry.

This project is something very special, though. It is supposed to remind of the oil spill and the effect it had and still has on the Gulf area. There will be a raffle and the proceeds will go to the  Audubon Society which is an organization that plays a big role in rescuing sea birds, cleaning them up and releasing them back to the wild.

Raffled off will be this necklace showing a brown pelican, the state bird of Louisiana.

I don't want to say much about the following pictures, but I hope they'll speak to your heart just as much as they did to mine.

 

Thank you,  Dawn, I'm proud to call you my friend.

If you want more information about the raffle, you can reach me at cat@catswire.com.