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‘Eco Art’ cards, was born after a tropical storm in
the Caribbean. The beach on the Atlantic coast of Nevis,
an island where I return each year to holiday, was awash
with bottles, buckets and fishing paraphernalia. Doing
my bit for the community, I collected the litter and was
astonished by the variety of brightly coloured plastic
rubbish and textures of the rope netting. In my studio
later I washed and cut up the flotsom and jetsom into
manageable pieces which I then glued to a wooden board.
My first collage “Sunset” remains my favourite because I
felt I had discovered something new in the making of it.
My obsession with collecting ‘found objects’ has been
with me ever since I can remember. The overlooked and
the abandoned speak to me. It interests me why a broken
black umbrella reminds me of an oil slicked bird washed
ashore and why a rusting wheel can give off energy even
though its travels are over. I am always looking beyond
and behind at the meaning of things. The titles of my
pictures and their happy fleeting simplicity belie their
environmental whispers. What you see in the pictures of
the beaches is what it should look like without the
litter- the irony is that I am using the discarded
rubbish from the beaches to make these idyllic images.
The collages take a long time to make individually and
require frequent visits to the beach to find a certain
colour to complete a picture. The present collection of
eight pictures has started selling through galleries, so
the initial excitement is still burning within me. The
cards are a special reminder of how beautiful the world
can be if we look after it. |
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