Gina Kiel talks us through her epic mural ‘The Last Bloom’ for Sea Walls Mexico.

Cozumel has become primarily a tourist area with hundreds of people coming onto the Island from cruise ships daily, to go diving or snorkelling, to see the coral, which as I experienced first hand is fast becoming an underwater desert.
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Coral is commonly mistaken for rocks or plants and many of us are unaware that these delicate creatures, growing like little mothers providing a nursery for thousands of species of fish, are actually living creatures. In my mural I have personified coral in the form of the face of Mother Nature, a relatable image for us humans, illustrating that coral is a living entity and to tread carefully in the water. Just like us, once it is gone, it is gone. A reminder to be careful not to stand on or touch her and not to use sunscreen in the ocean as it creates a barrier stopping nutrients from the sunlight reaching through the water to the coral.
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The black and white splitting and melting of the form in the mural represents the rapidly declining and dying coral reefs. This is due to many human impact/global warming factors including rising water temperatures that cause non-reversible coral bleaching and an increase in smothering sponges & algae, sunscreen, and sediments upturned by ships. The large scale of the coral mother in comparison to the tiny diver represents the large scale of the issue we are facing and the beauty we are loosing before our eyes.