I started creating beach mosaic art as a way to practice my craft outside of my studio. The idea was to use only what I could find around me in a small area of the beach. A way to practice creativity and letting go by creating something temporary.
What I discovered though is how common it is to find plastic waste among the natural materials on my local beach. Then I started noticing plastic in the ocean everywhere I went. It was disturbing to see, and on one particular occasion, the various microplastics were the only materials I could find on the beach. See, the materials, if not collected by plastic recycling facilities, ca take up to 450 years to biodegrade. These plastics I was finding were not so temporary and if not disposed of or recycled, would still be here for hundreds of years. So I started using the plastic pollution in my mosaics with this idea that if I could show people, through art, what I was finding..maybe they would actually SEE it... instead of just walking past it. Perhaps I can help bring awareness of how much ocean pollution there is and encourage people to start picking it up and ultimately start thinking about how dependent we really are on using plastics in our daily lives.
More info: annemarieprice.com
Whales have been found full of plastics
Number two plastics I find on the beach... plastic straws in every color
A study says, by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish
My open air studio
95% of our seabirds, worldwide, have some kind of plastic inside them
The number one plastic I find on the beach are bottle caps
What the fish eat... we eat too
