Madonna Fukushima by Chris Shaw
March – June, 2011
Acrylic on canvas
9′ x 11′

I watched the Japan earthquake and Tsunami live on television March 11, 2011. Like many, I was completely awestruck by the utter destruction I witnessed, but for some reason could not turn away. I’ll never forget the images of the tsunami hitting the Japanese mainland and entire towns being washed away. It was certainly Nature’s fury at its worst. I was extremely saddened and felt awful for all the people whose lives were affected or lost.

Then came the news of an incident at the Fukushima nuclear plant. At once I realized that there was something extremely wrong and scary happening there. Over the next days I again watched in horror as 3 of the reactors exploded and melted down, with a 4th in peril. I actually heard some “expert” say that the reactor buildings were designed to explode… “Don’t Worry”. There were massive radiation releases, but again the world was told that there was no problem, nothing was out of control. To me the situation looked very much out of control. As of this writing , Fukushima remains far from being stable or under control, it is a monumental catastrophe for Japan, the environment, and the world as a whole.