One-third of all marine life is found in, on and is dependent on coral reefs. However, coral reefs only occupy 1 percent of the seabed, or less than 0.7 percent of the surface of the earth. Think about it, one-third of all life in a vast ocean area covering two-thirds of the planet is crammed in right there on those tiny coral reefs. Put another way, just over 20 percent of all the life on planet Earth resides in, on and around coral reefs, stuffed into an area less than 1 percent of the earth’s surface.Think about it this way as well: If we lose the coral reefs it is the equivalent of you taking a 20 percent pay cut. Can you survive on that? Certainly not as well, and with coral reefs the story gets even more complicated.Coral reefs are one of the only living organism structures on earth that can directly convert the sun’s rays into energy. The little coral animals share their habitat and calcium carbonate skeletons with little plant-like organisms called dinoflagellates that trap sunlight and share it with the coral animals. And are all corals the same? Nope. Currently, with discoveries being made every day, they estimate there are at least a million species on the coral reefs, a million different animals as diverse as an elephant to your pet cat, only a lot smaller.u u uFor thousands of years, perhaps as many as a million years, coral reefs have had a steady, fairly constant environment. There have been upheavals in the past, volcanoes and such, but overall seawater is a blanket existence, keeping conditions even and predictable. Now, however, three big changes brought about by man are threatening large areas of underwater reef life: fishing (including aquarium collection), acidification and warming. You see, humans live near coasts, as do corals. What we wash out to sea and what we pump into the atmosphere directly affects the reefs. And what is worse, none of what we are doing to their environment has been experienced by them in the past. In other words, they have no genetic evolutionary characteristics to employ to overcome our sudden change to their world.In the Caribbean, there is something called mass coral bleaching, which is triggered by a 1 degree rise in water temperature. That is all, 1 degree in the summer temperature and whole reefs die off and bleach in the sun. Added to that there are tourism and fishing impacts. After all, it is easier to fish and sightsee near shore. And how much change has there been? Comparing studies done in the 1960s to today, the coral reefs in the Caribbean, Australia and the South Pacific have lost about 40 percent of the primary reef building corals.u u uIt is a disaster, not only to sea life and earth’s biodiversity but there is one other critical factor here: The coral reefs feed one in 10 people, every day. Imagine if, in your lifetime, another 660,000,000 million people — twice the population of America — face starvation. And the runoffs from the land, from farming and increasing storm activity brought about by global climate change, increase sedimentation, water temperature and acidity, further killing the coral animals.In 1998 about 16 percent of the world’s coral reefs died, according to the University of Essex coral study group. However, that was a significant anomaly event that has fortunately lead to some optimism: The coral reefs that “died” bleached out and slowly, over time, the organisms have started to recover and, latterly, have shown increased vitality, giving hope they can recover fully in a few decades.Of course, as one scientist pointed out, once the bleached reefs were abandoned by fishermen, aquarium collectors and tourists, they stood a chance. And there are signs that some species of coral are adapting to warmer climates, especially in the Arabian Sea. Of course, as soon as they recover, they will be under human attack once again. Our job, if we want to protect this huge biodiversity environment, is to limit local pollution and declare huge underwater parks off limits to human intervention. How huge will these parks be? Less than the percentage of national parks in the United States will save half the world’s reefs from extinction. Peter Riva, formerly of Amenia Union, lives in New Mexico.
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Artist Victor Cella with his recent painting “White Dog” in his studio and shop, Little Store Antiques in Great Barrington.
L. Tomaino
Cella greets visitors while talking with a fellow painter who comments about his work and Cella himself: “Eclectic, amazing! Victor is decidedly loved in the community and exhibits to everyone his completely open heart.” She added, “He inspires the rest of us who paint.”
Cella began devoting himself to painting about four and a half years ago. He remembers taking art classes in high school. He had finished all his credits early and was allowed, in his senior year, to take art for four hours a day. He credits his art teacher, Mr. Owen, with giving him a good foundation in art.
“Now that I paint, I rely on my teacher’s words: ‘To unify a painting, pick a color and wash it over the painting,’ or, ‘You need to mix the colors!’”
He won a scholarship to New York University to study art, but his parents said no.Instead, he attended North Adams State College, where he also took an art class at Williams College, repeating a pattern from high school in which he finished his required credits early and used the extra time to study art.
He earned a teaching degree in special education and ended up working in schools in Massachusetts and Connecticut for 37 years. He retired in 2019.
Then, four and a half years ago, he got the urge to paint, and the paintings flowed out of him.
He has sold 757 paintings, with 95 of those sold since May 7. “I am having bizarrely good luck with my paintings.” He estimates he has painted 2,000 paintings in four and a half years.
He modestly attributes his success to “I sell low and I have a built-in client base of 51 years,” he said, referring to recurring customers in his antique shop. “A billion people give me feedback.” He has two patrons who each have several of his paintings. “Unbelievably,” says Cella, “one person owns 32 and the other owns 27.”
His studio is in the back of the shop. He paints now on 16-by-20-inch canvases, some of which he recycles, finding them at Goodwill.
Cella’s paintings are tucked in almost every available space thoughout Little Store Antiques. L. Tomaino
To keep his painting fresh and himself interested because, as Cella explained, “I can’t stay with one idea for long,” he has gone through several phases: crazy dogs, grids, flowers with black backgrounds, a geometric phase and “weird people.” The “crazy dogs,” as he calls them, are popular now. One person bought eight, left to go to her car and came back for a ninth, spotted in the shop’s window — the one that brought her into the shop in the first place.
He may even illustrate a children’s book with the “crazy dogs.” A local author liked them so much she asked Cella if he’d illustrate a story about three dogs if she wrote one.
Cella was also approached recently by a person who said, “Do you know you were my favorite teacher?” She came into The Little Store, attracted by the paintings in the shop’s window. It turned out the former student owns Crystal Essence on Railroad Street in Great Barrington and has asked to sell Cella’s paintings there.
Cella, who will soon be selling the building where The Little Store is located and move it nearer to his Southfield home, was glad to be offered a new venue for his paintings.
An artist he knows, Scott Prior, a painter from Nantucket, bought one of Cella’s paintings and gave him this advice: “Never go to art school. You are an artist. Let it pour out of you.”
Cella said, “You have to follow your own path.” He mused, “If I taught art, I’d teach it in a different way. I could teach it as an awareness — how to free yourself up.”
To see more of Cella’s work, visit The Little Store (88 Main St.) or Crystal Essence (39 Railroad St.) in Great Barrington.
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