Tess Felix
Artist

I began collecting plastic debris off of Stinson Beach after the heavy storms in February of 2010. Currents carried massive amounts of garbage out of the delta, through the bay, and out the Golden Gate, depositing hordes of debris onto the beach. Walking the beach at the storms close, the shore, covered with colorful fragments of plastic, resembled a mosaic, giving me the idea of creating pictures out of the bright plastic bits and pieces. I picked up some garbage that day, went home and made a portrait out of the plastic. I returned the portrait to a little shack on the beach as a gift back to the sea. Someone found it and took it home, so I made another one. This is how the plastic debris portraits came to be.

Products start with an idea. They are designed, produced, supplied and bought by the consumer. Unfortunately the end of the products lifetime is not part of the design process so they are used and then discarded. If it is made of plastic it will stay on Earth forever. While the debris filled beach reminded me that we consumers are destroying our environment, I also saw shapes, color and the potential to create something positive. I wanted to give order and meaning to what I saw in front of me that day in February. My new medium is exciting to work with and reflects my passion as a painter. I continue to roam the beach picking up bits and pieces of plastic to clean, sort by color and turn into portraits. 

I call myself an accidental environmentalist. I can no longer walk along the shore without carrying trash away. Each little piece of plastic I pick up wonÕt end up in the stomach of a baby albatross. Our oceans are poisoned with plastics. There is more plastic than plankton. The little fish are eating fine particles of plastic, the bigger fish are eating the smaller fish and we are eating the big fish. The reality is that plastic is being produced and thrown away at a rate that is destroying the oceans and will never decompose. It breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces but never goes away. While I enjoy the emotional or visual response to my ÒpaintingsÓ I also hope that they also serve to shed a light on the impact we each have on our environment, creating even more Òaccidental environmentalistsÓ.

If you would like to view more of my work please visit my website TessFelixArtist.com or contact me at (415) 516-0114