For my mail art project, I chose to take an abstract approach to the way water influences and plays a vital role in maintaining our ecosystems and the vital role it plays in keeping us and the Earth alive. I chose to center my artwork around the quote, “We never know the wealth of water ’till the well runs dry” as most people, myself included, take access to clean drinking water (or any water at all, for that matter) for granted without realizing the life it provides us and the implications we would have to face if our Earth’s well officially ran dry.

When working on this project, I was inspired by the vitality of water and the role it plays in keeping both people and their environments sustained and alive. Growing up, I have been constantly surrounded by water, whether it be summers at the Jersey Shore, or moving to live down the road from the Long Island Sound. Throughout my experiences with water, I have learned time and time again the power it has to change and shape people’s lives, and how often myself and others take water for granted. As I completed this project, I was perhaps the most inspired by my experience completing community service work in the floating village of Prek Toal, Cambodia. Prek Toal is a village completely built upon and relying on water – boats are used like cars for transportation, while homes and schools and grocery stores alike are all built upon floating foundations along the Sangker River. Relying entirely on water to sustain their village and livelihood, it was not until this trip that I fully appreciated the power and impact of water. This realization fully came to me as we took a boat to the only secondary school in the floating village, which had started to sink, with parts of the foundation and building completely submerged or flooded with water. Kids were crowded into what classrooms were left, playing in the rising water between classes. The teachers told us that pretty soon, the school would be completely submerged and they did not have the funds to repair it, meaning the kids would simply not be able to attend school. On the floating village, water played both a vital and a challenging role in the daily lives of the community, sustaining life while causing damage in other areas. As I worked on my mail art project, I kept the emotions I felt and this experience in mind as I tried to convey the chaotic yet essential role water plays in communities around the world.