Category Archives: oil disaster

never forget.

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most of you will know this, but for anyone who perhaps isn’t aware… today is the one year anniversary of the bp oilpolcalypse. i can’t believe it’s been a whole year since the nightmare began.

the times-picayune has a special section with many, many good articles and editorials. you should read it.

we should all remember the eleven men who died in that explosion.

we should all be aware that those closest to the oil-infected waters, and who worked in the clean-up effort, continue to deal daily with lingering health effects from exposure to the oil and the corexit dispersant used in the clean-up.

we should all continue to be aware that we still don’t know what the longterm effects of the spill will be. and that the seafood that is being harvested from the affected waters may or may not be safe.

and sadly, we should be aware that the same thing could happen again today, tomorrow or any day, because not enough measures have been taken to avoid the same situations that caused the bp spill.

so, please. keep spreading this information. keep talking to your friends, family, neighbors. keep pressure on your legislators.

and keep praying. for the gulf. for the planet. for humanity.

 

send love to the gulf

how many t-shirts does it take to fix the oil disaster?

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i don’t know the answer to that question. i’m just asking.

in the mean time, i will continue to bring you t-shirt designs i find interesting from designers/companies who are using their creative skills to raise some money for non-profits and other organizations responding to the oil disaster.

the local t-shirt makers are still coming up with the best stuff, in my opinion. local silkscreeners saturn screenprinting have a couple sharp looking spoofs on the bp logo on vibrant green shirts (above) – one that says “spill baby spill” and the other the more direct “fu bp.” there are lots of shirts using the bp logo now, but these catch my eye as being similar enough so that you know it’s a bp logo without having to actually BE the bp logo -  i like that. all proceeds from the sales of these shirts will go to the gnof gulf coast oil spill fund. you can pick one up online for $20 including shipping, or stop by their central city location and get it in person for only $15.

i was wondering how long it would take for fledgling t-shirt empire storyville to come up with their own fundraising shirt for the gulf, and lo and behold, they have. this is one of my favorite designs i’ve seen so far; i just really dig all the little drawings of fish, crabs, crawfish, shrimps, oysters and other local sealife that make up the shape of louisiana. (and the color palette is pleasing, too.) they too are donating to the gnof gulf coast oil spill fund, with $5 from each $23 t-shirt sale being donated. you can pick one up at their magazine street location or order online.

i noticed storyville also just added this one too, which spells it out loud and clear. this one is on one of those trendy burnout shirts in a color scheme that resembles dirty water; it’s a cool effect. these are $30 and some portion of each sale will go to the same charity, the gnof gulf coast oil spill fund, though it is unclear how much. again, available in their shop on magazine or online.

i first saw this design on skip n’ whistle‘s facebook page; they were saying it was the only design they carry in the shop at this point that is not their own. so i wondered who had made it. i’d seen others posting about it, saying they’d seen it on cnn and local tv news, so i did some googling and found that it belongs to nola tee, and is benefiting the st. bernard project, to help commercial fishermen affected by the oil disaster. it appears it comes in different colors and in both men’s and women’s sizes. click the picture above to go to their site for ordering, or call or stop by skip n’ whistle to see if they still have any in stock.

speaking of skip n’ whistle, they continue to come up with more of their own original designs in response to the oil disaster. i’ve featured two of their other designs in previous posts, but this is their most recent one, time is running out for bp. they continue to donate a portion of their sales of these bp response shirts – $10/shirt on this design – to the humane society of louisiana, who are helping with wildlife rescue in the oil affected region.

of course, locals aren’t the only ones making fundraising t-shirts in response to the oilpocalypse, but i think i’ll leave that to a separate post, as this one is already getting long. if you know of other oil spill/bp related t-shirt designs that i haven’t covered that you think are cool, feel free to post them in a comment here.

stay tuned for more.

oilpocalypse day 64

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64 days after the deepwater horizon rig blew up in the gulf of mexico, the oil continues to gush. people all over the world, and especially in southern louisiana, continue to feel helpless, and even those who are doing their best to fight the good fight feel like they are in a losing battle.

let’s revisit that oil spill ticker i posted early on in this crisis:

divide that number of gallons by 42 and you get the number of barrels per day that have leaked into our beautiful gulf. and that’s just an average of all the best-guesses of how much is leaking out every day. i find this beyond comprehension.

i personally continue to feel like there is little i can do, save for spend a few hours every day posting articles and photographs and reports from grassroots groups on the ground to my facebook profile in a desperate attempt to keep others far and wide in my social circle informed and enraged. i have a few-day break from the census (the phase i was hired for is now over, but the next phase that i’m getting rehired for starts next week), but have to condense everything i’ve been wanting to do for the past two months into a few days. plus i have to get ready for the craft mafia’s 5th year anniversary party on thursday. and fae leaves for michfest work in a week, so we have to get all our ducks in a row for my eventual departure later in july as well.

it’s all a whirlwind to me.

so i guess i’ll just continue to do what i’ve been doing here on the blog, which is highlight some of the visual creativity that’s come out of this horrendous nightmare, in an attempt to both vent our collective anger and/or also help raise funds for some of the grassroots groups and first responders to the situation.

today, i’d like to point your attention to sticker robot, a silkscreen sticker company out in california. some of you may remember back when i was stenciling-for-obama, sticker robot kindly donated a huge whack of stickers of my obama stencil design for me to give out, to help the campaign. zoltron and sticker robot are good people, and here they go again, donating their brilliant work to the cause:

click the picture to get all the details. basically, you just have to send them a self-addressed, stamped LEGAL-SIZED envelope and they will send you a free sticker. i personally think this is one of the best graphics i’ve seen come out of the creative community in response to the disaster, and i can’t wait to get one onto my car. (maybe i’ll get lucky and get 2 in the mail so i can put one on the scooter too!)

a fresh batch of oil disaster response t-shirts coming soon. stay tuned.

oilpocalypse graffiti

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if you’ve been following my blog, then you know i’ve been posting a lot of t-shirt designs from mostly local designers in response to the bp gulf oil disaster. i started doing so originally because i was trying to come up with my own design, and was inspired by the work of some of my peers and also thought it was a great way to raise funds for various grassroots organizations involved in the response. (i only feature designers who are donating a portion of the proceeds to some responding organization.)

well i still haven’t managed to come up with a design i’m happy with (though i did make a rudimentary stencil for the back of my sierra club “clean it up” t-shirt so i could wear it to the protest in the french quarter two weekends ago, which you can view here), but other folks continue to churn out the t-shirts… and i will get back to featuring some more of them in a bit.

i’d like to switch gears just a little, while remaining on the design continuum, and feature some of the excellent and interesting graffiti that’s been sprouting up in response to the disaster. of course i’ve noticed some locally here in new orleans, but thanks to flickr, i’ve seen pieces from all over the gulf south and around the country.

this was the first i saw posted, and it’s by an artist named priest. he is often confused with – and obviously inspired by – banksy. priest is from alabama. i really like this one a lot. it expresses the anger we are all feeling down here, and is well-executed. take a look at that link to priest’s flickr and you’ll see he has a few others on the oil disaster theme… and i’m sure there are more to come.

this one just really hits the mark, by an artist called BonusSaves from kalamazoo, michigan. it’s quite brilliant – a northern gannett coated in oil. i love the concept.

this one, too, is very effective… and a really beautiful depiction of a sea turtle, swimming amidst the oil. this one is from key west, florida, and the photo is dated may 25th. i have no idea who the artist is. but it’s a gorgeous piece. props to the unknown artist. (and thanks to todd sanders for snapping the great pic!)

another one from florida, the wynwood art district in miami. again, don’t know who the artist is, but a nice piece. thanks to photographer justin helmick for snapping the shot on this very effective image.

this one is from down on grand isle larose, louisiana. it was painted before one of president obama’s visits down to grand isle recently. again, don’t know the artist but the artists are tattoo artists eric guidry and bobby pitre. this picture definitely speaks a multitude of words. this shot was not found on flickr but instead via the mainstream news online.

there are so many more, and i’m sure lots more coming as this disaster rages on with no end in sight. check out this gallery i made on flickr that includes many of the above plus others. and definitely leave me a message here if you’ve seen/snapped others wherever you are.

oilpocalypse t-shirt response pt. 3

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as the oilpocalypse rages on, i continue to be overwhelmed with anger, heartbreak, sadness and a feeling of helplessness as to what to do. i spend a considerable amount of time every day reading and reposting many online articles and first-hand accounts to my facebook and twitter streams, and i keep trying to hash out some designs for an eventual t-shirt or protest poster or something. but my census job keeps me so busy i don’t really have time to do much else.

tomorrow i will attend my first actual protest at 1pm in jackson square in the french quarter, which i hope will gather thousands to voice our collective outrage and sorrow. (i thought there was supposed to be one on thursday, but i scooted downtown at noon to find nothing going on anywhere – so i guess that one got canceled or something. sunday’s protest has been getting a lot of play in the media, though, so i think it will be big.)

since i still haven’t managed to come up with my own design that i like enough to want to print onto t-shirts, i’ll continue to spotlight those from my new orleans peers, particularly those who are donating a portion or all of the proceeds to organizations working on the response to the oil disaster.

(if you missed the first two posts, you can read them here and here.)

first, i can’t believe i forgot to mention this one earlier, from defend new orleans. the design pre-dates the oil disaster and was always intended to raise awareness of our diminishing wetlands, but now takes on a much more urgent message in regards to the oil disaster. 100% of the proceeds goes to the coalition to restore coastal louisiana and the gulf restoration network, two grassroots organizations that have been very effective and dedicated to preserving the coast and wetlands.

this second one is another design from my pal chris over at skip n’ whistle. their website is currently getting an overhaul, so no online ordering, but he says you can call the shop and order on the phone (504-862-5909) or just stop on in to 8123 Oak Street. i’m not sure where the proceeds are going for this one, but his other anti-bp shirt was benefiting the humane society, so perhaps it’s the same for this one.

this one is from my friend phillip whitmore of inexplicable confetti. according to his etsy shop, $5 from each sale goes to benefit the audubon society and their efforts to save the coast.

i’ve seen a LOT of these around town lately, and it took me a while to figure out who was making them. apparently it’s po-boy apparel. i don’t know anything about these folks, but this shirt sure is popular! according to their website, $2 of each shirt sold will go the “save the coast” coastal sustainablility program of the lake pontchartrain basin foundation (saveourlake.org).

and lastly, for now, from the good folks over at save nola, comes this “save our coast” design. according to their site, net proceeds from the purchase of this item will go to the coalition for coastal restoration. the design comes on this army green colored shirt as well as white t’s, in both men’s and women’s styles. i’ve seen a few of these around town already, too, and i’ve always appreciated that save nola was founded by locals to help out local organizations working to better new orleans and the region.

oh, and just as an update concerning fleurty girl’s rescue me t’s i mentioned in an earlier post, she recently tweeted the following: “so far raised $14,892 for @audubonzoo‘s louisiana marine mammal & sea turtle rescue program with our rescue me shirts!” that’s pretty fucking amazing! apparently she’s now offering some other accessories with the design on it too, so stop into her retail shop on oak street to get you some.

ok, i think that’s it for now. i know there are more – i keep seeing new ones all the time – and i’ll keep sharing them as i find them. i’m sure there will be some interesting ones at the protest tomorrow. now to get back to thinking about my own design…