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Message in a (water) bottle
HRAP’s Trash Talk turns
beach plastic into art
By KATHERINE LACAZE
FOR COAST WEEKEND
I
n the words of regional artist
Pooka Rice: “Art is the best way
to facilitate messages.”
During a recent workshop, she
showed a handful of participants what
that means by demonstrating how to
integrate bits of recycled beach plas-
tic into a collection of attractive
paintings that send a strong message
of ocean stewardship and environ-
mental protection — “art that tells a
story,” as Rice put it.
The workshop, held at the Cannon
Beach History Center & Museum,
was offered as part of the Haystack
Rock Awareness Program and Can-
non Beach Arts Association’s col-
laborative Environmental Art Series:
Trash Talk Art Workshops.
The Arts Association, whose mis-
sion includes education, received
funding from the Oregon Coast Vis-
itors Association to help offer the
workshops at a lower cost, making
them more accessible to the public,
said Meagan Sokol, arts education
director.
Katherine Lacaze
Artist Pooka Rice demonstrates how to incorporate plastic marine debris into artwork during a
workshop. As the outreach coordinator for the Haystack Rock Awareness Program, she is heavily
invested in protecting marine ecology and the area’s natural resources.
Art for all
From trash to treasure
The mammoth issue of plastic pol-
lution negatively impacting beaches,
bodies of water and marine life in gen-
eral is not unique to Cannon Beach, but
there is no better place for people to
contribute to mitigating the problem
than in their own community, said
Rice, who is also HRAP’s outreach
coordinator.
“If we all work together and do
our part, we can impact it,” she
added.
Cannon Beach’s iconic Hay-
stack Rock is protected under the
Oregon Islands National Wildlife
Refuge and as a Marine Garden.
HRAP is dedicated to preserving
the site’s natural resources, includ-
ing the intertidal and bird ecology,
primarily through education, such
as citizen science and stewardship
programs that draw locals and vis-
itors alike.
Katherine Lacaze
Community members work with paint and
recycled marine debris during a workshop
that was part of an environmental art series
organized by the Cannon Beach Arts Association
and Haystack Rock Awareness Program.
In the course of pursuing that mission, bring-
ing awareness to the plastic problem has sur-
faced as a key component. Microplastics are
permeating various levels of the food web and
causing widespread damage. For example, the
bright colors of the plastic pieces attract wild-
life. “We’re giving them junk food — literally,”
Rice said.
While the bouquet of multicolored plastics
and other debris is harmful to marine life, it can
be repackaged as an alluring art material. Par-
ticipants worked with fragments of old beach
toys, pieces of rope, and twisted bits of plastic of
unidentifi able origin collected from the shore.
Each person ended up with a piece of multidi-
mensional artwork that can now be “a storytelling
device,” Rice said.
Because ocean plastics are known to concen-
trate toxic pollutants — an additional danger to
marine ecosystems — she goes through a clean-
ing process to help detoxify the plastic before it is
handled. Even still, she encouraged participants to
wash their hands after crafting with the debris and
before consuming food. When the art pieces are
in schools or other areas frequented by children,
she said, they are encased in plant-based resin to
ensure the kids “aren’t exposed to anything.”
The Art Association is working to take simi-
lar environmental art workshops into area schools
with the help of working artists in the community.
“It is really important to me that art is getting
to students,” Sokol said.
Rice agreed: “There’s not a lot of art left in
schools. Bringing it in along with science is
awesome.”
The next workshop in the series is “How Does
Your Garden Grow: Beach Plastic Floral Assem-
blage,” with artist Mary Bess Gloria, on Satur-
day, March 23. For more information or to regis-
ter for a workshop, visit cannonbeacharts.org or
call 971-361-9308. CW