Due to the recent #ChevronRefinery #oilspill near #Richmond, I’m sharing “Refined?” a birds-eye view of the refinery. This artwork is in a series about water & land use policies… THREAD 1/9 
…inspired by a talk by poet #GarySnyder. He gave us a quiz entitled “How Local Are You?” He asks: “Do you know where your water comes from?” “Do you know where it goes when you are done with it?“ “Do you know where your garbage goes?” and so on. 2/9
I didn’t know the answers to many of his questions and and he inspired me to learn. As I researched where my sewage & garbage go & where my gasoline is refined & noticed were all on #sanfranciscobay. 3/9
That observation led to asking more questions & the answers I learned were often disturbing & inspired this series (these artworks are in the collection of the Kapor Center @TheRealFreada @mkapor) 4/9
The facility processes 225,000 barrels of crude oil daily but where does that oil come from? Most of it comes from the Alaskan North Slope and that’s why the refinery was sited right on the edge of the bay - for convenient delivery by tanker ship. (credit: Scott Hess) 5/9
The water quality of the bay and the air quality of the nearby communities have paid a high price for this convenience. The refinery is the largest industrial polluter in the region and has been fined regularly for their toxic discharges from fires and faulty flaring events. 6/9
3 weeks ago an estimated 500-750 gallons of what was initially referred to as “hydrocarbons” & was determined to be a diesel/water flush mix were discharged into the bay through a leak in a pipe. It’s taken 2 weeks to clean up the spill & the impacts are still being analyzed. 7/9
People ask me why I made the refinery look so beautiful. I purposely use beauty in my work to encourage people to look at the hard environmental issues we face and to inspire them to take action to protect their environment. 8/9
The artwork is currently in the virtual exhibition #MakingWaves at the @craftinamerica Center: craftinamerica.org/exhibition/mak… and I’m giving a virtual talk about my work on March 12 at 11 am PST. 9/9
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