A CRY FOR FUKUSHIMA

A CRY FOR FUKUSHIMA  Acrylic 24" x 24"

by Mary Lou Dauray

I have asked myself what can I do, as an artist, about the worst industrial calamity in human history * ---the triple meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants.  I am overwhelmed by the unprecedented scope of this disaster.  I become paralyzed by the information that is now coming forth—five years after the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami-caused destruction.

When I decided about 15 years ago to begin making art about events in the world that concerned me, I did created work on a variety of topics.  Eventually I started painting about global warming and climate change.  Then last fall I decided to do art about nuclear energy because I do not believe nuclear power should be considered a reliable source of alternative energy.  How to begin?  It took a while, but I felt that the disaster at Fukushima would be my entry into the complicated world of nuclear energy.  I started with a drawing of the black plastic bags that are filled with radioactive waste from the Fukushima Daiichi area.  Apparently there are now 30 millions of these one ton bags scattered all over the prefecture in an unsuccessful effort to make the land livable again.  It was determined that  by cleaning out the contamination the soil would be free from radioactivity.  However, when it rains or snows, the radioactivity returns.

My picture, “The Cry at Fukushima”, evolved through many days and numerous layers of paint.   At one point, a tragic face, encapsulated in the storage bag, appeared. It seemed appropriate and I kept it because approximately 160,000 people have been displaced from their homes and the disruption has caused suicides, loss of communities, and intense despair.  In addition, a governmental cover-up has lead to a lack of information as to exactly what is happening.  There has not an answer yet as to how to even find the core that melted down in one of the plants. A “Secrets” law has been enacted that forbids journalists to write about the situation.  Apparently thyroid cancers are beginning to appear at a higher rate than average among children. Tons of radioactive waters pour into the Pacific Ocean daily.  No one knows exactly what to do and there does not seem to be an end in sight.   The world has never experienced any situation like this.

www.maryloudauray.com

*A quote by Arnie Gundersen, Board of Directors, Fairewinds Organization.  Gundersen has had more than 40 years of nuclear power engineering experience and he is currently in Japan doing podcasts about the situation. www.fairewinds.org

FUKUSHIMA: 30 MILLION RADIOACTIVE STORAGE BAGS

"The Little Black Bird"  Acrylic  24" x 24" 

by Mary Lou Dauray

This is the fourth blog in my series of artwork about nuclear energy.  My painting depicts only one of 30 million plastic storage bags stuffed with radioactive waste in the Fukushima area in Japan.  These bags are part of a seemingly futile effort to clean up contaminated soil in the area. According to Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy Education Organization and who has more than 40 years of nuclear power engineering experience these filled millions of plastic bags are spread all around the area—in parking lots, in people’s back yards and in rice paddies, among many other places.  Each bag holds 1 ton of radioactive waste.  He notes that despite these massive efforts remove the radioactive soil, every time it rains or snows contamination reappears.  Ultimately, the cost to Japan for the entire radioactive clean up (if that is even possible) will reach one half a trillion dollars. 

In the corner of my painting you can see a little black bird.  It refers to what appears to be a diminishment of the bird population as a direct result of the triple nuclear power plant meltdown. There is now a dead zone in area. The disaster has had huge impacts as there are dramatically fewer species, according to Dr. Timothy Mousseau, Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina.

In doing research for my artwork about nuclear energy, it is clear that there is no solution for the disposal of tons of waste from shuttered as well as existing nuclear power plants.  To pretend otherwise is appalling. I am shocked about the leaking of radioactivity into groundwater.  I strongly oppose the construction of any new nuclear power plants and the closing of all existing plants.

If you want further information please check out:

www.fukushimaupdate.com and www.fairewinds.org. 

My website:  www.maryloudauray.com

"Mother Earth is a source of life, not a resource".  

Spoken by Sioux Chief Argol Lookinghorse

NINE MILLION RADIOACTIVE FUKUSHIMA STORAGE BAGS AND COUNTING #3

                                           "Person/Robot?"  24" x  24" acrylic on canvas

                                                               by Mary Lou Dauray

    The third painting in my art series about the dangers of nuclear energy took a direction of its own as the work developed.  I started the 24” x 24” canvas by creating an image of a plastic storage bag filled with radioactive waste from the Fukushima meltdown.    However, as I continued to work, a person/robot emerged from the shadows.  I felt it was a direct reference to the many workers who have gathered radioactive wastes on the ground in the Fukushima prefecture and put the debris into nine million plastic bags.  The figure in the painting could also symbolize an experimental robotic machine being used to enter the Fukushima Daiichi plant because exposure to the existing levels of radiation, even five years after the meltdown, would be lethal for humans.  Efforts by robots to navigate the debris-strewn interior have proven to be hit and miss with the robots disintegrating upon radiation exposure.

    Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), the plant operator, believes that cleanup will take at least another 40 years to complete!  "It is difficult to estimate, but I would say that we have achieved around 10 per cent of decommissioning," said Akira Ono, superintendent of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, 140 miles northeast of Tokyo.

    The manpower and money dedicated to just the house-to-house land cleanup effort is staggering.  In the last four years, the government has spent $13.5 billion on decontamination efforts outside the nuclear plant, and the budget request for the fiscal year starting in April is another $3.48 billion, said Seiji Tsutsui, director of the international cooperation office for radioactive decontamination at the Environment Ministry.  Think about this--now necessary but--incredible waste of money which could have been used to launch wind, solar and hydroelectric power development and production in Japan.

    I am very concerned about the worldwide dangers posed by nuclear disasters including Chernobyl and Fukushima; by the continuing radioactive leakage into the waters surrounding the Fukushima plants; and by the inability to safely store the growing pile of nuclear waste, not just in Japan but elsewhere, including the United States.  As mentioned previously in my earlier blogs, I have been doing art relating to climate destruction with series about plastic pollution, melting glacial ice and the burning, transporting, and mining of coal.  Until this week’s Supreme Court's politicized ultimatum to halt implementation of a positive climate decision by President Obama which would have helped to stop coal plant emissions and construction I felt the momentum of the UN climate talks in December 2015 would help speed a lowering of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Now, with this Supreme Court unwise decision, I fear that this climate agreement is jeopardized.

   Please read the February 11, 2015, New York Times article entitled “Let’s End the Peril of a Nuclear Winter” by Alan Robock and Owen Brian Toon     http://nyti.ms/1V5IJAj

     My website:  www.maryloudauray.com

NINE MILLION PLASTIC BAGS AND COUNTING #2

"NINE MILLION BAGS AND COUNTING #2" 

 Acrylic on canvas 24" x 24"

by Mary Lou Dauray  

This picture, “Nine Million Bags and Counting #2,” is my second in a series about nuclear energy.  I am deeply concerned about the dangers posed by past, current and future nuclear power development and the dilemma posed by nuclear waste disposal.   This is a critical and ominous issue that can threaten a healthy existence of all life on this planet.  Admittedly, before I decided to tackle this topic of nuclear energy as my current artwork direction, I realized early on that I was not a scientist—just an artist trying to use my voice about climate destruction.  As a result, I plunged into the world of online information about the topic nuclear. When I came upon the incredible photos of nine million plastic bags of stored waste from the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown in Japan, I realized I had my subject.  These bags, with a lifespan of three years,  are neatly piled above ground or even in some backyards.  Alarmingly, after a serious flooding from an intense rainstorm in the Fukushima area last September, 2015, I found out that scores of these 264-gallon plastic bags just floated away and some even broke open.  I even saw a photo of a person scooping up the radioactive debris with bare hands!  Keep in mind that the Olympics are scheduled to occur in Japan in 2020…an issue that the government is keenly aware of. 

My second artwork, as you can see, is definitely going in the more abstract direction than my first effort.   

NINE MILLION BAGS AND COUNTING!

                             "Black Plastic Bags with Red Cone" by Mary Lou Dauray  Pen and Ink  5 ¾ x 4 3/4

In the Japanese Fukushima Prefecture you cannot help but glance around and see at least 54,000 very organized stacks holding more than 9 million neatly packed plastic storage bags.  These enormous black sealed bags are filled with radioactive soil and all kinds of sizzling waste collected since the Fukushima Daiishi triple nuclear meltdown on March 11, 2011. All this waste is stuffed into these monstrous bags that have a predicted life of only 3 years. The filled bags are then deposited throughout the areas surrounding Fukushima including even in the backyards of homes, parking lots and parks.  

Since 2009 I had been creating artwork reflecting my concern about man-made climate destruction.  I did series of paintings about plastic pollution in the oceans; the melting of glacial ice; and the mining, transporting and burning of coal. I felt that after the December Paris Climate agreement, I wanted to focus my work on another environmental problem—the continuing future development of nuclear power plants by international corporate interests.  The argument they use is that nuclear power should be considered a strong contender for alternative energy sources—one that will reduce greenhouse gases in the environment.

During these last months I have done quite a bit of research about nuclear energy.  It was shocking to learn about the very serious ongoing radioactive emissions from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident in 2011.  Thyroid cancers are already appearing in the children; radioactive water is being pumped into the ocean at an alarming rate. TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) is finally starting to come clean about the severity of the Fukushima disaster in other respects as well. A new declassified report from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, written about a week after the disaster occurred, revealed that 100 percent of the total nuclear fuel spent at reactor number four was released into the atmosphere. According to nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen, of fairwinds.org, “unit four harbored more cesium than in all 800 nuclear bombs exploded above ground”.

Approximately 20,000 workers are being employed to thoroughly cleanse the radioactive soil, streets, and gutters.  Workers go house by house to scrub rooftops and walls by hand—some even using a toothbrush.  In short, these decontamination efforts are not getting "rid" of the radioactive problem – they are simply moving it, and sometimes not very far.  The ultimate cost of this cleanup campaign is estimated to possibly be as high as 2 billion US dollars.

Nuclear waste disposal really has no solution.  I am planning to continue my research and related artwork about this topic. Please stay posted.

www.maryloudauray.com

THERAPEUTIC ART

"Surrounding", Mixed Media, 9" x 6"

On a cold winter’s night in December,

In a place right in my home,

I slipped quickly on a pool of plain water,

And…… In that split second I fractured the longest bone in my body—my femur! 

I certainly did myself in!

Now, after surgery, and with a new titanium plate inserted into my leg (airport security is going to love this!), I find myself sitting almost all day because I cannot put any weight on my healing leg!  This situation is affording me lots of time to be quiet; to practice patience; to help me become fully aware that I cannot control everything; to read; rest and yes, even to think about and create art!

As a result,  I decided to paint my feelings about the accident.  I can tell you that it was definitely therapeutic to create even this small watercolor.  The act of putting brush to paper, and letting the paint flow, helped me to replay, and then mentally clear out, some of the trauma.  I did the painting over many days by layering yellow, a touch of blue and red,  and then drawing with black ink.  The picture seems to reflect aspects of the hospital stay and resultant confusion.

I am also extremely thankful and appreciative for the enormous amount of healing support given to me by my family and friends.  A thank you to them is not even enough.

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On another note, and since I now have the time, I have been reading some fascinating books.

I highly recommend  “Daily Rituals” (How Artists Work), by Mason Curry. What I find as a recurring theme in the book is the fact that a large number of the various artists, poets, philosophers, suffer from insomnia and that almost all of them take daily walks to clear their minds.

A book I have just finished is Thomas Cahill’s “Mysteries of the Middle Ages."  I cannot endorse this book highly enough.   Cahill deftly and brilliantly retells in a gripping way the significant stories surrounding lives of people whose contributions continue to influence our modern age.

I am also inspired by “Zentangles”, a how-to design coloring book,  that was given to me by a very thoughtful friend.  You can see evidence of the zentangle inspiration in the black ink lines drawn on my watercolor!

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Please read my latest article about eco-artist, Alexandre Dang, at the following link:

http://www.healing-power-of-art.org/alexandre-dang-artist-engineer-and-environmentalist/

Happy New Year!!!

www.maryloudauray.com