To The Sea: Artist Statement

For this collection I put some thought into how to re-use different materials that would normally be sent to the landfill or recycled. You might be wondering why I am using “trash” in my fine art pieces. I have had a number of personal experiences that have shaped my relationship with waste in our oceans.

Winter of 2022 I was working on an environmental restoration project in a wetland area off Meyers Way in Seattle. The wetland area eventually runs off into the Puget Sound. Every weekend our group would pickup trash and remove invasive plant species. We worked so hard, only to come back to the same area the next weekend to find it full of trash.

That same year in May when the tides were low, my friend and fellow artist J.R. Salter asked me to go “mucking” with her on the Duwamish river. A nice way to describe mucking would be; J.R. going hunting with friends for interesting pieces of garbage to use in artwork on the “shore” of the Duwamish. I had no idea what to expect really. She told me to wear boots, long gloves and bring a shovel.

We walked down to the Duwamish, which is a very sacred place for the Duwamish tribe that connects to the Puget Sound. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I could feel the energy there. It was so breathtaking, yet so sad at the same time. This sacred space where the Duwamish peoples thrived for centuries, now practically destroyed by industry and waste.

After the Duwamish people thrived here, the river has become a dumping ground for human and industrial waste- hitting its peak in the 1940’s and 50s. Starting in the 1960s, pollution-control measures began to reduce the load of chemical and wastewater contaminants in the river, but its still a mess.

Somehow nature has persevered with all of the muck. There are living things there, crab, seaweed, different organisms working hard to filter out the waste. Nature is fighting a battle with industry, and its barely holding on. The destruction of nature on behalf of profit for a very few. The recklessness of industry amazes me. Why not help to protect the very land that provides for us?

This had me thinking, I want to change the dialogue around trash to something more serious through transforming something left behind into something beautiful and calming. The trash isn’t going away.

While my use of “trash” in my work is yet a microscopic contribution to this effort, I have a strong desire to find larger solutions to this problem through working in collaboration with others. In sadness, there is often beauty that can be transmuted.

In this collection I visit some of my favorite elements of the sea, while also subtly pointing out the darker side. Like oil spills, garbage and sewage contamination. Sometimes darkness can also be transformative and beautiful at the same time.