Joe Bigley is a multi-media visual artist who has shown work in the U.S., Europe, and China. He received his M.F.A. in sculpture from Alfred University in 2008 and is currently an adjunct faculty member at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C.
Over four months have passed since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and setting off a chain of destructive events with economic, political, and environmental repurcussions that will reverberate for decades. British Petroleum looks like it'll come out of the disaster with merely a few cuts and bruises. In this illustrative essay, artist Joe Bigley recounts the tragic events, and the resurrection of BP.