Ocean Alchemies XVII. Mixed Media on Aluminum, 20in x 50in, by Ruth Ava Lyons
A Study of Life
Justin Campbell
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French-American sculptor Justin Campbell was born in Chambery, a city in the French Alps. He grew up on the North Carolina coast developing an intimate connection with the subtropical wildlife in and out of the water. Campbell's passion for art surfaced at an early age in his drawing, painting, and sculpting. After an epic adventure through Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from East Carolina University. Justin currently works full-time designing, welding, and fabricating. He creates his sculptural artwork at his studio in Wilmington, NC.
Light Within the Darkness: What Lies Beneath
3-D, Glow-in-the-dark, mixed media paintings
Alexandra Morse
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The development of plastic has affected the environment in a way that no other manmade material can rival. It has become an enduring source of pollution in the oceans as well as land, and there is no history to judge the long-term effects. Few of us consider the ultimate destination of a plastic item. Where do plastics end up when their use is over?
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With my paintings I focus on the plastics that find their way to the ocean. THere is no shortage of materials for the art that I create and I hope to inspire others to make changes in how they consume plastic. Little things such as using reusable grocery bags and beverage containers, eating fresh food over packaged food, and being a little more aware will not only benefit ourselves in our own environment but also the world we don't see; the world under the ocean's surface. Around eight million tons of plastic are dumped in the ocean every year. Lets find a way to reduce that number, reuse our resources and help more than just ourselves. Sometimes within the darkness there is a light.
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Blacklight Whale
Baby Sea Turtle and Man-o-War
Looks like Food to Me
Aztec Turtle with Two Jellyfish
Guest Artists
Located throughout the gallery
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Sunrise Triptych
Resin embedded with plastic, under glass
17.5in x 13.5in each
Autumn Wilkins
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Autumn Wilkins designed Sunrise Triptych to bring an artistic interpretation to the items collected by the Ocean Conservancy on its annual clean-up day (2015). The triptych focuses on bottle caps, which were the fourth-most collected item in the clean-up (811.871 caps). But look closely to also see the bottom of a plastic bottle in each panel along with straws, wrapping, and other plastic debris. Autumn's pieces capture the beauty of plastic debris while still calling attention to the need to eliminated it.
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Autumn has an extensive line of hand-laid mosaics which are represented under the name of Doodad Mosaics in several local galleries and on the internet.
Quilt to Warm the Sea
Found materials
59in x 68in
Fritzi Huber
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This quilt was created while the artist was attending the "No Boundaries International Art Colony" on Bald Head Island in November of 2015. While walking on the beach she noticed elements in the grasses beyond what were natural. But then there was something more: compressed fibers, which initially appeared to be fabrics. But after collecting and cleaning them, she discovered them to be primarily composed of plastics. There is over 30 feet of found monofilament sewn into this quilt. All of what is here was found in only those 2 1/2 afternoons.
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At Water's Edge
Handmade paper
Fritzi Huber
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Fritzi Huber has been a papermaker for more than 35 years. Her work is in numerous collections, including Duke Medical Center, SAS Industries, and AOL corporation. THe Cameron Art Museum holds her work in their permanent collection and recently organized the show "Fritzi Huber: A Circus Life" which focused on the influences of Ms Huber's past circus experiences. She has also taught paper making workshops across the United States and received a number of grants including an NEA and California Arts Council Grant for Artist in Residence. She currently works and exhibits at Acme Art Studios in WIlmington, NC.
Tideline 1, 2, & 3.
Handmade paper.
The Nets #3. Handmade paper,
mixed media.
Quilt to Warm the Sea. Found materials.
Jellyfish Lanterns
Mixed materials
4ft x15in variable
Katherine Wolf Webb
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Hanging from the 16-foot ceiling, Katherine's three internally lit jellies sway ephemerally throughout the day–and spectacularly throughout the night. The sculptures are crafted from plastic, batting, molofila, cord, cellphanne, thermoplasticwire, electrical wire, LED bulbs, and polycarbonate. This is only a fraction of the many materials Katherine experimented with, but the tribulations were worth the effort. The final jellies are so lightweight that they appear to literally breathe.
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A native of North Carolina, Katherine has lived abroad and traveled extensively. She has lived in WIlmington for the last 10 years.
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Yellowfin Tuna
Heart pine floor joists and metal
5ft x 7ft
Justin Campbell
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This magnificent sculpture represents the plastic in the ocean that is ingested by the fist that we eat. Look closely to see the plastic in its digstive system. In its construction Justin used ten 2feet by 12 feet floor joists from teh Expo 216 building restoration, selecting the most flawed of those available to provide markings for additinal character and accents.
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Justin, born in France of an American father and French mother, grew up on the NC coast. He studied art at East Carolina University's School of FIne Arts. He live sin WIlmington and works from his studio, Justin Campbell Designs.
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Jellyfish Lanterns
Yellowfin Tuna. Heart pine floor joists and metal by Justin Campbell
Medusa. Cast Iron and steel by Justin Campbell
by Justin Campbell
by Justin Campbell
by Justin Campbell
Works by Brook Bower
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This photographic collection addresses the "ghost" fishers of the ocean: discarded fishing debris. In order to capture the essential characteristics of the object (repetition, geometric shapes, and fleeting movement) images were created using a camera-lens photography technique called a rayograph (photogram). The process exposes light directly onto an object placed on a photosensitive paper.
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Brook works in the arts, helping to promote artists through exhibition design and management. She received an MA in visual arts administration from New York University Steinhardt. She earned a BS in art management, and a BFA from Appalachian State University's Department of Art. In addition, Brook is a practicing artist. Her media concentrations include photography, collage, and drawing. She manipulates these media along with incorporating alternative techniques to create her unique style.
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Oceanic Alchemies
Ruth Ava Lyones
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As an artist in residence at Heron Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, my primary activity was to collect imagery to use in a new body of work. In addition to my underwater meanderings, I was very fortunate to be able to spend time with leading researchers and scientists and see their experiments that investigate the effects of global warming on the greatest reef ecosystem in the world.
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The challenge of this work was in the development of the ambiguous relationship that exists between the photographic and the painted imagery.
My desire is to communicate the reality that we are changing the largest natural structure on the face of our planet by our actions and that we need to work on solutions to preserve this threatened ecosystem. As my intention is to call attention to the negative impact we are having on the ocean, I also attempt to balance the focus of man's destructive forces with a positive message of restoration and renewal by creating imagery that appeals to our sense of beauty. Most of the reeds I photographed were in a degraded state of coral bleaching and were devoid of color and in an unhealthy state, traumatized.
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My artistic process was to put color back into the images digitally and hand work them in mixed media to almost artistically resuscitate the coral to its original state. This symbolic attempt to return the coral to its former glory is a statement of activism for moving forward to take actions to save the reef. We are still capable of reversing the damage and we can restore these fragile ecosystems through conservation efforts and educating ourselves about the threats they face. These are sea gardens that we need to find ways to tend so they can flourish. Coral reefs support 25 percent of all marine life. Helping the reef keep its resilience and promoting stewardship of this incredibley diverse ecosystem is somethign we all need to take action to protect now.
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Learn more at www.coralreef.noaa.gov
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Hybrid Ocean
Cordelia Norris
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"To me the sea is a continual miracle,
The fishes that swim - the rocks -
the motion of the waves - the ships with the men in them,
What stranger miracles are there?"
- Walt Whitman, Miracles
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As an artist and environmentalist, the natural world offers endless fascination and inspiration. Growing up in a house on stilts on the beach, with the Gulf of Mexico as my backyard, I’ve been passionate about marine conservation since childhood. My mission is to promote a more sustainable, nurturing approach
to the natural world that sustains us and showcase the strange miracles that surround us.
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The United Nations predicts that by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans. We are displacing precious marine life, which sustains over 500 million people daily, with non-degradable waste, eliminating individual species and entire ecosystems alike with a permanent plastic stew. As Sylvia Earle notes, “We are the only species that knowingly pollutes its own food source.” This disturbing reality inspired Hybrid Ocean, which imagines the consequences of transforming life in the ocean with consumer plastics—the evolution of strange, synthetic hybrids. These paintings engage the viewer in alluring environments only to slowly realize the disturbing reality of these altered ecosystems.
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In a series of smaller paintings reminiscent of classic advertising
illustrations, Hybrid Ocean explores our seemingly innocuous relationship with plastic. Set against sunny skies, everyday plastic goods are presented as originally marketed—appealing, refreshing, fun. The devastating impact caused by the thoughtless use and disposal of consumer plastics is explored in the corresponding larger
paintings, which depict the chimeras created by our carelessness. Beautiful, serene, and completely non-functional, these hybridized creatures are tragic figures whose individual dysfunction embodies the larger dangers faced by the oceans.
Eco-Art Mare Plasticum
Wolfgang Trettnak and Margarita Cimadevila
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Originals: Mixed media and marine debris on canvas
These seen here: Prints on Aluminum
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Expo 216 has gone international! They are extremely proud to have prints of eleven pieces from the eco-art Mare Plasticum collection by Margarita Cimadevila (www.cimadevila.tk) and Wolfgang Trettnak (www.trettnak.com). The originals have been exhibited worldwide - from the National Museum of China in Beijing to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Mare Plasticum belongs to the new avantgardistic art movement called Eco-art, which is trying to use art as a means for alerting an environmental issues, sustainability and recycling.
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The exhibition, which combines Science and Art, deals with the pollution of the oceans by plastic materials and its environmental species, toxicity ... its objective is to make known this and other problems to the public and to sensitize it. The works were made of plastic litter, which was collected on the beaches of Galicia (Spain) by the artists.
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The collaboration between Trettnak and Cimadevila began in the series Plastic Fishes and has found its consolidation to Mare Plasticum, where the works are of joint authorship both in conception and realization. Their work offers a vision that is worth real and imaginary, and it is sounding the alarm, "It is time to act!"
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Mostly Spots Before My Eyes
Katherine Wolf Webb
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More than anything I create and problem solve. The seed of an idea comes from my senses to my brain, into my consciousness and the creative/problem solving takes that seed and tosses it around until that idea is expanded and plumped and colored and turned into something I like. And then the c/ps takes the same idea and turns it into something else I like. And so it goes until what I call art is born; and it is further worked until a medium is chosen with which to birth this baby. The process is powerful, joyful, and wandering...and very hard.
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