On the evening of July 20th, about fifty people assembled at Chelsea gallery PPOW to hear an amazing roster of Underwater New York contributing artists speak about their work.

Amy Jean Porter, whose show OF LAMB was up in the project room of the gallery, kicked off the event by tying the humpback whale she drew for UNY into a larger narrative of her exploration of the natural world versus human culture.

Elizabeth Albert took it from there, explaining how her research of NYC’s fringe shores such as Dead Horse Bay and Coney Island Creek was sparked, in part, by Underwater New York and piquing everyone’s interest in a waterway-themed exhibition she is curating for the fall of 2012.

Marie Lorenz made us all feel like we were traveling NYC’s waterways on her Tide and Current Taxi, being inspired equally by the objects we encountered, the people we met and the ebb and flow of the water itself.

George Boorujy closed out the event with a talk followed by a bottle toss into the Hudson River, all of which was luckily captured on video by the very talented Stacey Szewczyk of the blog Hudson River Stories. Watch her piece below and be sure to follow up to track the fate of George’s project NY Pelagic!