A Wake
18x24 diptych | 2022 | Mixed media drawings: oil pastel, graphite, cut paper
$350 for Adam; Eve is sold
18x24 diptych | 2022 | Mixed media drawings: oil pastel, graphite, cut paper
$350 for Adam; Eve is sold
After reading about Ben Lecomte, the man who swam through the Great Pacific Garbage patch in 2019, I was inspired to create this drawing in which two figures, asleep or dead, drift in an ocean teeming with more trash than marine life. Our poor collective stewardship of the ocean that we all share makes us as vulnerable as these figures. While they appear helplessly suspended and unaware of their damaged environment, they can still take action to save the world and save themselves.
According to the California Coastal Commission, plastic is especially harmful for marine life because it’s durable, buoyant, and capable of accumulating and concentrating toxins present in the ocean. Here are 3 actions you can take today to protect and restore our ocean:
Change your behavior: make trash extinct by reducing, reusing, and recycling. Avoid single use plastic, clothing made from synthetic fibers, and personal care products with microbeads.
Change the plastic industry: educate yourself about and advocate for government proposals to reduce marine debris. Let the businesses you patronize know that you would like them to offer alternatives. Vote!
Participate in an ocean cleanup day or program. Mark your calendar for next year’s California Coastal Cleanup Day, which occurs annually on the third Saturday in September.
Change your behavior: make trash extinct by reducing, reusing, and recycling. Avoid single use plastic, clothing made from synthetic fibers, and personal care products with microbeads.
Change the plastic industry: educate yourself about and advocate for government proposals to reduce marine debris. Let the businesses you patronize know that you would like them to offer alternatives. Vote!
Participate in an ocean cleanup day or program. Mark your calendar for next year’s California Coastal Cleanup Day, which occurs annually on the third Saturday in September.
Fifty percent of the sale of this piece will be donated to 5 Gyres, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization working to address the global health crisis of plastic pollution through science, education, advocacy and adventure.
Source: “The Problem With Marine Debris.” California Coastal Commission. 2019. https://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/marinedebris.html.
