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Trash to Treasure: Create Art from Ocean Plastics
September 12 @ 12:00 pm - 2:30 pm
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Discover how art and science come together to explore one of the most pressing challenges facing our oceans: Ocean Plastics & Marine Debris. Presented in partnership by Crystal Cove Conservancy and Laguna Outreach for Community Arts (LOCA), this hands-on program explores how plastic pollution moves through our environment, impacts marine ecosystems, and what we can do to help turn the tide.
A Conservancy conservation biologist will take a closer look at the story of ocean plastics, from everyday items that travel through our watersheds and into the ocean to the tiny microplastics that can persist in the environment for decades. Together, we’ll explore how marine debris affects wildlife and coastal ecosystems, where all that plastic comes from, and why preventing pollution at its source is so important.
Then, LOCA instructor Liz McGhee will help us turn trash into treasure, transforming discarded materials into a creative multimedia art project inspired by what we’ve learned. You’ll leave with your own unique piece of art, a deeper understanding of the challenges facing our oceans, and practical ways we can all be part of the solution.
Whether you’re passionate about conservation or simply ready to get creative, Conservation Through Art offers an engaging blend of science, art, and community, reminding us that what we throw away doesn’t simply disappear, and that each of us can play a role in protecting our ocean.
Recycled Plastic Mosaic
So many plastics in our daily lives are designed to be disposal and end up in our environment and landfills. With this art project, participants will create their own mosaic type collage with plastic tops and caps which serves both to recycle and utilize an otherwise disposable material, and illustrate the variety and complexity of plastic waste in the marine ecosystem. Participants will have the opportunity to make their own unique design or follow pre-drawn templates.
All supplies will be provided. Class size is limited to 25 participants. Minimum age is 10.
Meet Liz
A native of southern California, Elizabeth McGhee has exhibited at the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach since 2010. Her work has been displayed in museums and universities across the country, and she is both nationally and internationally collected.
An oil painter trained in the classical realist tradition, she graduated from Laguna College of Art and Design cum laude in 2009 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Drawing and Painting.
Passionate about arts education and environmental stewardship, many of her classes and group projects focus on using materials that are normally discarded.
She is currently represented by:
Gallery Henoch
555 W 25th Street