From Ocean Garbage To Art

How cool is this? Down in Biddeford at the University of New England, Artist-In-Residence Kim Bernard found out that the Marine Pollution Class was scheduled to pick up ocean debris at local beaches. She asked the students to keep the garbage, rather than disposing it.

Bernard and her work study students painted a wave on a trash bin, and encouraged other students to collect ocean debris and put it in the bin for the project. They collected 88 plastic bottles, 71 cans, 18 lobster trap pieces, 8 shoes, 7 glass bottles, 4 golf balls, 4 shotgun shells, 3 hats,1 dog toy, 1 horseshoe, 1 plastic tarp, 1 pink kitty pool, 1 scarf, 1 CD case, 1 portable scale, 1 iron pipe, 1 gift card and lots of plastic bags, food wrappers, fish line and nets.

The next step was to color sort, clean and shred all of the material into weave-able strips. They hung a "loom" of stainless steel wire on the stair rails in the Arthur P. Girard Marine Science Center lobby. For 3 days, they engaged the UNE community in a big trash weaving effort.

Here's the finished project!

The Clean Ocean Wave Sculpture is now on permanent display at the Arthur P. Girand Marine Science Center. There will be a formal unveiling Thursday, January 19th at 3:30 PM.