I believe I have mostly completed this painting. It was just like that! 2 days. Though I should probably fiddle with it a little. It just came pouring out of me. I was obsessed, reading all these new and old documents about the Hanford radiation experiments and watching videos about it. There is more in me to do on this subject, to be certain.
In truth, I first started this painting some years ago — the same day the reactors at Fukishima experienced severe problems in Japan in March 2011 as a result of a record breaking tsunami. I must have known it in my bones before I consciously knew the accident actually had happened.
The style in this painting is very different than what I usually employ, and the colors make me think of radiation. I was never able to finish it until now, the 67th anniversary of the Hanford human radiation experiment called the Green Run (which originally occurred on December 2nd and 3rd, 1949). It is personal for me since I was affected as a small infant.
While I was working on the painting yesterday and today, I kept the same large figures and the color scheme that I had originally, although I tweaked the skin and clothes. I added the two babies after seeing the video about the many young babies who died in Walla, Walla, WA (where I was born) during the Hanford Green Run experiments era. The babies are all grouped together in the local cemetery. I was in tears.
On my painting, I included typed strips of writing from an article by “A Green Road Journal” and another article created by the governmental ‘Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments’ called: “The Facts and Unknowns of the Green Run” published Nov. 9, 1994. The typed strips remind me of the little typed notes my parents and others put on archaeological specimens. I incorporated them in the painting so they seem both like bandages and ghostly, dream-like bits of documents that weave between being clear and obscure.
I figure there must be tons of sick and dead children from radiation more recently in Japan. Not to mention increased illness and death rates in infants along the West Coast of the United States given all the toxic xenon we are getting these days. Ever wonder why there is increased respiratory illnesses here??
So yes, unfortunately, there is a lot of material for me to get inspiration from. I feel like I owe it to all those kids who didn’t survive or aren’t doing so well–since yes small children are more affected by radiation than their elders (although their grandparents don’t tend to do so well either). I am one of the lucky ones despite the fact I got severely ill coincident with the Green Run in 1949 when I was 4 months old. I was likely sick from both the iodine 131 and the excess xenon (and who knows what else!) since my lungs were severely affected. They have never been quite right since then.
Nevertheless, I was fortunate to have been taken to the hospital and treated with gamma globulin likely laced with iodine (which protects against the radioactive iodine 131), and taken off gluten (which tends to be inflammatory). But many were not so fortunate. But even as fortunate as I am, I have had to really work hard on my health for years (and still do) to be healthy and whole. I am really glad to have found some remedies that really work for me like dandelion root, barberry, ginger and (taken separately) bentonite slaked by letting sit in water at least 5 hours–as well as a low histamine and gluten free diet.
Of course none of us were fortunate at all to be exposed to so much intense radiation. As I keep reading I have discovered there were several Green Runs, not just one as the government eventually claimed by mid 1985 (i.e, the one on December 2nd and 3rd, 1949). We are talking about more than 847,000 curies of radioactive iodine that were released into the river over a 3 year period alone–before the Green Run in December 1949 with its 8,000 curies. More was released at intervals up through the 1960’s. Fortunately we moved away by the time I was 3. There were only 24 curies of radioactive iodine that were released in the Three Mile Island accident. And yes no one was told until the mid eighties.
Both Hanford and the nuclear accident at Fukishima are bad situations that keep on giving. The big issue at Hanford now is all the leaking storage tanks the federal government (and its agencies) simply has not had it in its heart to spend money on. From what I have read, they could potentially contaminate the entire region if its not attended to. The health of the Columbia River is at particular risk not to speak of cities downriver like Vancouver and Portland.
And Fukishima, wow. I need to find out more. And plan to. There seems to be a continuing black-out on the situation there. The powers that be and news media overall seem determined to give the impression that nuclear is safe by not covering the story or paying attention. This needs to change.
I hope some of my art can help create more awareness of the necessity to deal with and heal this issue wherever it exists.
bgarthart.com 