Miss Snail Pail: only 9 days - Living Sea Sculpture update

Dear Friends,

My 90 days with kickstarter are coming to an end soon! We have $3,000 to go to meet our goal of $15,000 for Living Sea Sculpture--Contemporary Art as Coral Refuge or will not receive any of the money raised. To find out about the project in detail and donate:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/958753974/living-sea-sculpture-contemporary-art-as-coral-ref

my favorite cultural blogger, Maria Popova of Brain Pickings, featured the project this week:

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/03/30/colleen-flanigan-underwater-biorock/

The Atlantic grabbed it:

http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/03/underwater-sculptures-help-save-the-worlds-oceans/73269/

Much has been happening to get ready for this project in Mexico:

Artist and MUSA curator, Jason deCaires Taylor, has located a site for the sculpture near 4 of his pieces in a highly visited snorkel zone. Just got the green light from Club Med in Cancun for our electrical source today. The tidal turbine is still in the works for future projects. This small budget won't cover it this time, yet thanks to many backers, I've been getting suggestions about additional funding resources. Some of the grants are large enough that it could allow us to prototype a turbine and install another refuge.. to keep the momentum for more living sea sculptures.

Wonderfully talented people are joining in: Mike Gerzevitz has offered to come to Mexico and document some of the project. Margaret Andres has offered her editing skills. Thomas Goreau, Thomas Sarkisian, Brent Hartwig, Carey Robson, have been consulting and working on energy designs to ensure most efficient and affordable methods. I recently met with Diego Gioseffi, president of the non-profit, www.submerge.org, to discuss possible collaborations here in Portland and in Mexico this summer. They have a workshop scheduled for July 2nd-July19th in Playa del Carmen; timing may be perfect for kids in Mexico to join us in Cancun to replant coral on the sculpture, take underwater photos, and learn about reefs.

On March 25th, the Biorock simulation and Gossamer Crocheted Community Reef came down from the display at Knit Purl. It had been there since January 5th. LOTS of people walked by, saw the art and watched pieces of the movie, "Reef Reborn." Thanks to Clay Connally, the movie was looping for the entire 2 months and 3 weeks. Right in front of a busy intersection and bus stop, the installation was very public. Every time I was near, I saw someone peering at the screen; even overheard someone who "lives" by that window say, "It's about corals." nice:)

Some people plan to come down to help with the coral planting. lovely! I met Wendy Thompson at the "Wild and Scenic Film Festival" in Nevada City this Jan. when they were screening "On the Trail with Miss Snail Pail." She immediately offered to get involved. She has worked with Sylvia Earle and facilitated coral reef research in Belize, specializing in fish and invertebrate species abundance trends and coral identification.

The small Biorock® experiment at Sea Horse Aquarium Supply, here in Portland, OR, is beginning to accrete:

sooo, lots of good progress! Just a few thousand $$ to go. Please contribute whatever you can.
Any outreach you can do in these final days: post, tweet, publish, email, ask... THANK YOU!
This is my first attempt to raise so much money. I'm on a limb and keeping the faith. For those of you not familar with kickstarter, please check out the site; it has helped so many creative projects take off and backers receive unique "rewards."

As the hourglass trickles out, please give one final shout for the coral refuge!!

Here are a few photos I took of the Gossamer Community Crocheted Reef and Biorock Simulation installation at KnitPurl. Special thanks to Sandy Barnes, Elle Moody, and Tess Stevens for that opportunity!