Brooklyn artist George Boorujy was surprised when he received an email from a woman in France, letting him know that she had found his message in a bottle.
Almost three years ago, Brooklyn-based artist George Boorujy threw a message in a bottle into the ocean from Staten Island.
He included his email and a pencil drawing of an open ocean bird in the message, and sealed it with a cork and wax.
Last month, the bottle was found in France.
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Boorujy received an email from a 65-year old painter named Brigitte last week, saying that she had found the bottle while her and her husband were walking their dog along the beach in the South West of France, 3,600 miles away from New York City.
"I never expected it to get that far," Boorujy told INSIDE EDITION, saying the project had actually slipped his mind.
"I thought most of what I would throw would be lost."
The bottle that Brigitte and her husband found is only one of 19 glass bottles that Boorujy had tossed in the ocean around the same time as part of a project.
The project, entitled New York Pelagic, was meant to call attention on garbage accumulation in the oceans, he said.
Other bottles were found on the coasts of Florida and Connecticut, although most were cast off from the same locations.
None have appeared nearly as far as this one. Brigitte and her husband, who are coincidently also artists, wrote to Boorujy that they found the bottle in Royan, a beach town near Bordeaux.
"The bottle arrive in a perfect aspect... covered with shells." The email read, as posted on Boorujy's project website. The email continues, saying that when Brigitte and her husabnd found the bottle, they were saddened by "ecological disasters" that have left the beach covered in garbage.
New York Pelagic, meaning open ocean birds, had the exact intention in mind, Boorujy said.
"I had wanted to do a project about the giant garbage patches in the ocean... and our ignorance of the ocean and its wildlife," Boorujy wrote on the website.
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Since Brigitte had reached out to Boorujy, who is represented by PPOW Gallery, with the news about the bottle, the two artists have remained in contact, communicating almost every day.
Brigitte has invited Boorujy to visit her and her husband in France, and Boorujy has extended to them the same invitation to New York.
"If they come to New York, I'd love to [bring them] to my studio. It'd be great if we tossed a bottle together."
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