Since 1999 Richard and Judith Lang have focused their attention on just 1000 yards of tide line where they have collected plastic washing ashore on Kehoe Beach in the Point Reyes National Seashore. Although the news about plastic pollution is dire, they bring the excitement of scouting for treasures and the pleasure of the creative life to an otherwise difficult topic.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
T-Rex
Monday, September 21, 2009
Arts and Healing Network Award 2009
We are pleased to be in receipt of the Arts and Healing Network Award for 2009. The theme this year is WATER which connects us with the other fine artists who are working with water issues. The Arts and Healing Network has posted interviews with all of the award recipients.
http://www.artheals.org/about/ahn_award.php
Our personal page is at
http://www.artheals.org/ahn_award/2009judith_richard.php
Coastal CleanUP Day
Richard with Megan Foulkes, a Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center staff naturalist, took an early group out to the shore. At the Center as folks arrived for the CleanUP, Judith spoke to them about our Shore Stories exhibit and the art workshop. She showed them samples of the “jewelry” they could make and told them about the participatory public sculpture project.
By late morning folks were returning to the Center with bag loads of trash. They transformed their trash into colorful arrangements of plastic that they took home as sculptures and necklaces.
We had no idea what people would collect or in what quantity so we were astonished that the most abundant find was chunks and bits of Styrofoam packaging material. Because most of it had either been at sea a long time or had been caught in the tidal area, it had a rich aged patina, hardened like chucks of granite.
In an improvisational gesture, inspired by Louise Bourgeois’ Personnages, the totem stacks of wood she created in the late 1940’s, the Coastal CleanUP participants helped us perforate the Styrofoam then stack it on to the white dowels we supplied to create “pickUP sticks”. Everyone was thrilled to know that this group endeavor would be on display for the duration of the exhibition.
When we began the day we were all strangers but by the end of the day a special bond was forged among us. We all had come to understand the imperative of cleaning the planet up and had had some creative fun.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Evidence from the Gyre
Dennis Rogers, Doug and I tied a long rope to the mass of the ghost net and then strapped the rope around the sand filter for our septic system then like a come-along winch dragged the net out of the trailer.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Mnemba Nurdles at the Bay Model
International Pellet Watch
Friday, May 15, 2009
Rising Tide at Stanford University
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Necklaces
By giving aesthetic form to what is considered to be garbage, I serve as both cleaner and curator. While the content of my work has a message about the spoiling of the natural world by the human/industrial world, my intent is to transform the perils of pollution into something beautiful and celebratory.
These necklaces were made from plastic collected from Kehoe Beach in the Point Reyes National Seashore. Irresponsible visitors did not leave this plastic on the beach; rather it washed up from the ocean. Some pieces show evidence of being at sea a long time, roughed and tumbled by the salt and the waves. Some have identifying markers indicating that it traveled far, from Korea or Japan.
I hope by putting a little fun and fashion into the conservation conversation, that the value of detritus will increase. Soon everyone will be out at the beach “shopping” for a special piece of plastic trash or will be eager to “mine” the North Pacific Gyre for plastic treasures. Then, we get some great things to wear and to look at, plus we get a clean and healthy sea.