Bonnie J. Smith, Santa Clara Branch; textile, 74 x 63

Over the years, Bonnie J. Smith watched as the California drought lowered the level of the San Luis Reservoir in Merced County. She wondered if she would ever again see green grasses growing around it or water lapping up the sides of its vast bowl.

Finally, rains started and never seemed to stop. Highways, rivers, salt marches and homes flooded. Smith was excited to see how well the reservoir held up under the torrential storms.

It was a glorious sight to see so much water! When the rains let up, she knew the water would eventually make its way through the Santa Clara Tunnel and Conduit, through the Coyote Pumping Station in the Santa Clara Valley, then finally to her home.

The idea for her textile artwork, “Water, Water, Everywhere,” sprang from her being a witness to such an abundance of rain in a land of drought.