Artist Virginia Casey creates works of art using trash she finds on the beach. That way she creates beautiful things while also taking care of the environment.
“I love finding the beauty in everything, especially in things that people don’t normally see as attractive,” Virginia says. The project started out as a hobby in 2017, when Virginia started collecting pieces of trash that were left behind on her local beach in Perth, Australia. A lot of Virginia’s artworks are made from plastic, such as the many sunglasses that she finds, and she also creates pieces she calls ‘ropeys’, which are made from different pieces of rope she has collected off the beaches. If there’s still some seaweed or shells attached, she leaves them like that. “I don’t cut or color the plastic, and I love the ocean’s patina that shows the journey the materials have been through.”
Virginia says the most beautiful thing about her art is that she recycles the rope and plastic in a creative way, and that it serves as a great reminder of how much ocean rubbish is found even on so-called ‘clean’ beaches like those in Perth. Nowadays, Virginia mostly uses the art pieces to educate children in schools about the pollution on beaches and in the ocean. “I haven’t been selling the art as it was important for me to have enough to take to schools, but I will be in the future as I’m now running out of wall space in my home and office.”
Going forward, Virginia hopes to expand on the project and take it to the next level. “I would like to assist countries that have an ocean pollution problem, to help them make an industry for their plastic to be sent to Australia so we can create more art.”
- Curious about Virginia and her work? Visit her Instagram page for more information.
