Hey there,
Five years ago today, the leaves around New Orleans broke and half of the city went under water or was affected by the flood. Hurricane Katrina will definitely be remembered as one of the biggest disasters in the US.
Rita and I spent the days running through Red Cross databases trying to bring together displaced families and passing information to our group leader (the group being called ‘We will find them’) who would then make calls to the different shelters and confirm the identity of a particular person.
Don’t get us wrong. We weren’t in NOLA. We were on the other side of the world in Poland. But we are part American and one thing you have to know about us is that we never give up. Just give us internet access. We have found the databases online ourselves; we joined a yahoo group with other people who wanted to help and we were screening every bit of news there was. A name, date of birth a photo was a vital clue. We have found some people alive; we have found some people to be dead. But at least the family knew.
During that time Rita also made a drawing that went to the Art for Katrina auction. Her character Dalia (a very sensuous cat girl from Brooklyn) was posing in a set of daring lingerie. The artwork was sold for 10$ and went to a lucky buyer in Mobile, Alabama (we still love you whoever you are!). You can see the artwork here:
image by Rita
http://realmofzaterra.deviantart.com/gallery/#/ddu3by or
http://www.resonantfish.com/artforkatrina/art/rdabrowicz01.html
If you are interested in browsing through the Art for Katrina website, please go here:
http://www.resonantfish.com/artforkatrina/gallery.htm
You can see some of the most memorable images from NOLA in the gallery below:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/1987/1/
We haven’t been thinking of the Katrina disaster in a while. But it’s always good to remember.
Mal and Rita
