Angela Pozzi, founder, and artistic director of washed ashore, created this nonprofit to save the sea. She directs all the members and volunteers to help grow a following. Angela grew up around art, and ever since she was a child, her art has incorporated recycled and repurposed materials. In 2004 she experienced the loss of her husband. To cope with his death, Angela would go to the ocean to help her. As she took her trips to the beach, she saw all the waste left on the shore. She started to research more and more, which led her to today, making art to save the ocean. Her nonprofit has collected over 35 tons worth of plastic on the Oregon coast, which has turned into over 85 sculptures. These sculptures represent endangered animals and sea life.
As you can see in this picture, the sculpture represents a fish. It is supposed to relay today’s sad reality. Many sea life creatures are ingesting plastic every day or getting suffocated by plastic items. Under the fish, you can see how their fishnet and tangled rope. Fish frequently get caught or tangled in things that are left in the ocean. This is our fault, and we continue to let this happen.
The sculpture pictured above is a bird. As you can tell, it’s not only sea creatures that are affected by plastic. It’s estimated that 99% of sea birds will have ingested some plastic by 2050. That is sad. Many birds see plastic floating on the surface and think it’s food and consume it. These plastic items can quickly kill birds.
Pollution art is when plastics are made into an artistic display. Like I stated earlier, most artworks represent sea life affected by pollution. These sculptures are meant to educate our community on ocean pollution. Seeing these pieces in real life impacts people to make a change rather than just simply hearing about it online. Most of the time, these pieces are placed on the beach, so when people see them, it encourages them to think twice about littering.
Overall, I think pollution art is an excellent concept to help educate people. So many artists are switching to this type of art to not only help save our environment but to educate people on the dangers of pollution. You can help to by participating in beach clean ups and donating your plastic to these artists to use in their next sculpture!!