I am very pleased that I had an article published in The Goose, the official publication of ALECC (Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada), of which I am a member. Early in 2024 the editors sent out a call for “a playful open edition” on garbage. They were talking more figuratively, but since I use so much waste plastic in my practice, I could not resist the call. After much back and forth with the editors, “My Art is Garbage” was published in February 2025. You can download it here.
In “My Art is Garbage,” I describe three recent art projects where garbage is both a theme and an artistic medium used to critique the overuse of and inability to reuse or safely dispose of everyday plastics. The first work, Untitled (Plastic Film Balls), uses non-recyclable single-use household plastic made to form an installation of shimmering balls and alludes to the environmental footprint of the artworld (Figure 1).
Plastic Shores, a series of monotype prints, reminds us that plastics in the environment are deleterious to species of shore birds (Figure 2).
Finally Plastic Pests, a series of mini-sculptures constructed from plastic found in agricultural soil warns that plastic is everywhere in the food production system (Figure 3).
My monoprint Plastic Shores (Canada Goose) also appears in a review by Maureen Korp in “Wayfaring storylines: Three art exhibitions” (January 2025 OSCAR, pp30-31).