saltwater . Saucedo called them “ Katrina in a glass .” Without clean water from the tap , residents of New Orleans had to drink and bathe using bottled water . Water transformed from a commodity taken for granted to a finite resource . A vital necessity that had to be constantly measured and assessed .
Saucedo asked himself and his family , “ Should you be washing with that water or should you be drinking that water ? Because we don ’ t have both choices .”
His recollections have stark similarities to the water issues currently affecting the United States . When asked about the contaminated water in
Flint , Michigan , Saucedo pauses and briefly glances at the glass of water he set on the table earlier .
“ Water is the essential life force ,” he says . “ By not giving your population clean and healthy drinking water , the threat to national security and human life is great .”
Surviving Hurricane Katrina has had a transformative impact on Saucedo ’ s art . Partly to pass the time , but mostly to quench his own personal exploration of water , he began sketching gallon jugs and small water bottles provided by the Red Cross in his FEMA trailer in New Orleans . He ’ s fascinated by the aesthetic capabilities of water containers as well as their practical use — vessels that can control and distribute water .
“ I think I make all these vessels because without them , water is just an intangible form ,” he says .
As the years progressed , his sketches have transformed into more intricate and complex pieces , including brandings and paintings . In
Fluid Volume Index ( Scrovengni ’ s Guilt ), Saucedo paints images of water containers , each surrounded by a white halo , on a blue canvas . It ’ s his way of acknowledging the reverent significance water containers possess . “ It canonizes them ,” he says .
In 2007 , Saucedo created Flood Marker , a monument to memorialize those who lost their lives to Hurricane Katrina . On a plot of grass in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans sits a 8,000-pound granite block etched with 1,836 waves , one for each victim . Flood Marker stands as a testament to and for the people of New Orleans and their steadfast resilience .
“ I built it to create pride of community and pride of self and highlight the fact that we are all survivors ,” he says . “ We persevered .”
Water ’ s intangibility and unpredictability reared its head again in 2012 when Saucedo experienced Hurricane Sandy as it struck his current home on the New York coast . Instead of evacuating , he stayed with his family in their house to wait out the storm .
“ Perhaps foolishly , but with a real desire to witness it all firsthand , I didn ’ t evacuate like we did before ,” he says .
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