Washed Ashore

In the 'Washed Ashore' series, I attach floating debris found on Martha’s Vineyard, Long Island and Florida beaches to 'peaceful and pristine’ handmade paper seascapes.  Discarded plastic, styrofoam, rubber, seaweed, metal lobster pot parts, computer chips and nylon and cotton fishing line seem to float within the seascapes. At a distance, the objects appear to come alive in a beautiful setting but at close range they reveal our environmental problems.  Some debris is attached to handmade paper backgrounds and become abstract found object collages.  In my seascapes the debris is camouflaged as it is to ocean dwellers, sea turtles, albatross and dolphins that think the plastic is plankton, are caught in the discarded fishing line or grow encumbered and strangled by plastic six pack holders or covered by rusty colored oil slicks. I hope to draw attention to what we leave behind so we are more conscious of our impact on our environment.