Acadia National Park, Mount Desert, ME

August 21, 2016

For this specific sculpture, I collected trash from around the rocks and ocean of Schoodic Point in Acadia National Park. Naturally, most of the trash I found was water-related: a few washed up buoys, crinkled up water bottles, frayed ropes, and plastic bags for fishing.

Acadia, Acrylic on Trash, 2016 — *Acadia*, Acrylic on Trash, 2016

I have been contemplating my relationship with art and the large amount of waste it can produce. I wanted to find ways I can validate art and its important purpose by working with recycled materials found in National Parks and other landscape environments. With 2016 having been the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, I have especially appreciated, and been inspired by, the natural beauty that the parks offer, and found how easily we can take these precious places for granted. For each National Park I visit, I plan to gather as much trash as I can, sculpt it into a canvas, and paint the scene where the trash originated onto the trash itself. So far I have collected trash from Acadia, Rocky Mountain, Arches, Zion, Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Pinnacles, Channel Islands, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Saguaro, Guadalupe Mountains, Carlsbad Caverns, Big Bend, and Petrified Forest National Parks.