Marsh Mission

Louisiana is in a desperate battle to save what remains of its coastal wetlands, which are disappearing at the rate of a football field-size area every 38 minutes. Most people are unaware of the devastating transformation of this remote region, though the effects are detrimental for the entire country economically, culturally, and environmentally. Hoping that art will inspire concern where statistics have not, and focusing on the marshlands' beauty rather than their destruction, nature photographer C. C. Lockwood and painter Rhea Gary have joined together in Marsh Mission to show that a picture is worth at least a thousand words. Their rapturous photographs and paintings may well leave one speechless. For an entire year, C.C. immersed himself in the wetlands, living on a houseboat--the Wetland Wanderer--covering more than 5,000 miles and documenting everything from oil rigs to egrets and vivid setting suns. Rhea sometimes joined him and other times ventured out in her own bateau, designed to hold an easel for making oil-on-paper sketches. She produced the final oil paintings on canvas in her studio. In breathtaking detail, C.C. captures the quiet, hidden activity of the wetlands in all their paradisaical aspects. Rhea conveys her emotional response to the light, color, and mood of the landscape with bold impressionistic strokes in raspberry, tangerine, lime, fuchsia, azure, and yellow. Together, the two impart an aesthetic experience that explains better than any map or scientific data the irreplaceable treasure being lost.