World Turned Upside Down

Jennifer O’Farrell/ WhiteWave Photography
“The World turned Upside Down”
Multi Media (photographs, newspaper ads, canvas, oil, sharpie)
Size – 16”x20”
2008
In a world of resources, there seems to be enough for everyone’s needs – basic needs- however, especially in the United States, we live off the resources of our greed. The earth, in a way, has been turned upside down by the rape of her resources. There are various quotes from authors, Native America proverbs, and guides that have shared the, in their way, the abuse that has occurred to Mother Nature. One of them is: “The US is the number one producer of garbage. We consume thirty percent of the planet’s resources and create thirty percent all its waste. The US is home to just four percent of the global population.”
Some say the whole world, the whole earth, and creation seem upside down. What was once innovation and industrial ingenious now seems to have ramifications upon the purest gift that resides amongst us. Yet the hope is that some how when we least expect it, the world- our choices, our lives- writes itself again.

Message in a bottle

“Message in a Bottle”
Multi Media (oil, canvas, newspaper, pictures)
Size- 16”x20”
2008 – donation to Jim Stream and The Arc of Riverside County’s NineZero Project

“Message in a Bottle” is the heart beat of The NineZero Project. NineZero stands for “Nine months, Zero alcohol.” Alcohol is the leading known cause of mental retardation in the United States, yet it is one hundred percent preventable.

The bottle is an accumulation of many alcoholic beverages sold within the states. The various types of drinks are to show that there is not one beverage that causes Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. The Surgeon General has placed on all of them labels reminding pregnant women that there is no safe time nor no safe amount of alcohol to be consumed during the nine months of pregnancy. Within the bottle’s spill emerges a small representation of the thousands of lives that have been damaged due to the effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol. The faces are those with FASD.

I have chosen the color purple that drips out from the bottle splashing onto the faces as an analogy. Purple typically is associated with royalty. People with FASD are from royalty in how they are treated; due to the way others treat them, 60% will find themselves suspended or expelled, 60% will have trouble with the law, 80% are unable to live independently, and 80% are unable to keep a job for over three months. Yet their voices have not been silenced. Choruses of other have joined with them to sing a song of awareness, prevention, and hope for the lives of generation that will not struggle with FASD. Join the chorus. Visit NineZero.org.