I’ve been thinking about the art that is being sold in response to the oil disaster. I see a lot of people organizing and selling their oil-related work, stating that a “portion, or all, of the proceeds are going to relief efforts”. Although I do think that this is a good idea, in spirit, I have some problems with the bigger picture of it.A lot of these artworks are being shipped across the country, and/or the world to reach the buyers…which uses oil. Lots and lots of oil products (gas, diesel, plastic, etc.) to ship a wee little piece of paper, or trinket…How does that stack up to the actual amount of money to be made from these sales? I suppose local efforts at doing these sorts of sales are not as bad. It really seems that these kind-hearted folks don’t see or understand the soft costs of shipping.Part two of my problem with this: why should it be up to private citizens to pay for damage done by a multi-billion dollar corporation? It isn’t. This isn’t a hurricane, this isn’t natural. Yes people are hurting. Yes a lot of things are going to be ruined for a very long time… yes people are owed money from loss of income. Yes animals are dying, dead or need to be cleaned. I can’t say that I think its wrong to donate to relief organizations, because it isn’t. I just wish it didn’t have to be that way. Thankfully there is the possibility that BP will pay for all of this mess with the Escrow fund. see:
Possible justice. I’ve got my fingers crossed for that.
As for the kind-hearted artists, what about digital downloads for those donation projects?