The project is inspired by a line of plastics, styrofoam and garbage I found on the beach following a tropical storm. It was shocking, disgusting and beautiful at the same time, the way the tiny bits of color and texture created an undulating line down the shore. It secretly appealed to my drawing and collage sensibilities in opposition to my deep concern for the stewardship of the shoreline.
Why did these fragments seem so beautiful sculpted by the ocean waves but also so disturbing in their presence on the beach? Was it only on a superficial level that I did not like to see garbage? What forces were at play that kept me coming back to uncover what was hidden in the sand?
The beach that I walk I like to call “our beach” because it is near to where we live in Mazatlan. We have been enjoying this place for many decades off and on. It is really a stretch of beach that is a tourist destination where In the past five years has experienced a building boom of new condominiums and hotel development.
On my walks I beach comb the shoreline separating the ocean and the city. I gather materials deposited from the changing tides. Each time I come home with a few treasures in my pocket but the objects that catch my eye are not only the typical shells that most people treasure-hunt. I search specifically for man-made objects whose physical appearance are in a state of transformation. I look for construction materials littered on the shore, then shaped by the continuous action of the surf, re-deposited water worn.
Common objects such as fragments of plastic or glass bottles that had been rounded into sea glass, beer bottle metal tops encrusted with rust and sand or small broken pieces of decorative tiles and bricks are what catch my eye. The rare beach finds are the remnants of the bottoms of aluminum cans and oyster shells whose shape and pearl sheen resembe on another. I am intrigued by the materiality of the objects themselves, and the palimpsest of their textured layers and color.
If I find myself asking “Is it a rock or is it a brick so worn as to look like a rock?” then I pick it up. Occasionally I find a waterlogged twig with tendrils that look like looped wire. I like that I am unable to identify many of the object as either purely man-made or natural because they exhibit physical characteristics drawn from both.
THE COLLECTION
