Oilwhelmed
"Oil wells, derricks, pumpers, oil islands are beautiful in Huntington Beach, CA, my childhood city. Over our backyard fence, a gated oil pumper rocked up and down most days. My brother swore he rode on top of one once. I picture him pretending he’s surfing on the oil pumper. As I returned to visit my hometown with my children, I noticed the drastic changes from when I was little. Oil fields transformed to swathes of track homes, estates and business areas.
I became fascinated by the way the city focuses on surfing and seems to want to forget the oil history. For instance, the city built a playground, called Discovery Park, where the first oil gusher was discovered and displayed a small plaque. The park was then designed around sea life. An oil well themed park would have been more appropriate. This inspired me to design playground equipment with oil well themes and other soft sculpture toys as parade floats. Perhaps kids should play with toys that mimic the oil industry. Hopefully celebrating the oil industry will allow kids to question our dependence on oil and cars."
"Oil wells, derricks, pumpers, oil islands are beautiful in Huntington Beach, CA, my childhood city. Over our backyard fence, a gated oil pumper rocked up and down most days. My brother swore he rode on top of one once. I picture him pretending he’s surfing on the oil pumper. As I returned to visit my hometown with my children, I noticed the drastic changes from when I was little. Oil fields transformed to swathes of track homes, estates and business areas.
I became fascinated by the way the city focuses on surfing and seems to want to forget the oil history. For instance, the city built a playground, called Discovery Park, where the first oil gusher was discovered and displayed a small plaque. The park was then designed around sea life. An oil well themed park would have been more appropriate. This inspired me to design playground equipment with oil well themes and other soft sculpture toys as parade floats. Perhaps kids should play with toys that mimic the oil industry. Hopefully celebrating the oil industry will allow kids to question our dependence on oil and cars."
