Our Plastic Seas II

£400.00

My daily dog walks are always at our local beaches across East Sussex. At low tide, particularly after a stormy night, and especially at spring tide a couple of days after the full and new moons (where the tides have the highest rises and lowest falls of the month), there‘s treasure to be found on the shoreline. Amongst the mermaid‘s purses, cuttlebones and whelk egg cases, you can also find a huge amount of ghost gear (discarded fishing nets) and hard plastic fragments. Some may have travelled hundreds of thousands of miles. Faced with the overwhelming amount of these fragments, I saw an opportunity to repurpose them as substrates for my art, creating painted seas on them. My goal was to depict 'seas of plastic,' a stark reflection of what our oceans could become if don’t change our behaviours. The resulting assemblage transforms discarded plastic into art acting as a visual appeal and call to action against plastic pollution. By transforming litter into painterly sea vignettes, I hope to instill hope as well as urgency in the call to protect and preserve our oceans. This process symbolizes our choice to love and safeguard these vital ecosystems, highlighting the potential for transformation even in the face of environmental challenges.