Turtles have always stirred a deep love of the marine world for me. The ancient animals who travel great distances across the sea are peaceful and full of grace. The first time Thatcher Gray went snorkeling we saw turtles, and they always seem to appear when we swim in tropical waters. When Thatcher was born, I became obsessed with how we nourish ourselves, then as an extension, the impacts of a mobilities centered culture on the environment. In tandem with becoming involved with the Slow Food movement, I set off on a decade-long investigation that explored the impacts of plastic and chemical pollution on marine life.

Turtles are confronted by immense challenges. Shoreline lights disorient them when they return to their birth places to nest. Dogs and human scavengers dig up their eggs to consume as a delicacy. Warming temperatures throw off balance of turtles born as male and female. The turtles that do hatch are picked off by birds and other predators as they make their way across the expanse of sand to the sea. As they navigate their way through the ocean, they mistake plastic bags for their favorite food, jellyfish. Turtles die of starvation with stomachs full of in-digestible plastic bags. Other plastic pollution causes entanglement & cause them to drown.

It’s heartbreaking to see these graceful creatures meet their demise. This work was created to convey the beauty of this ancestral creature and the challenges that confront them because of an anthropocentric attitude of consumption and waste.

Turtles swimming in a Plastic Ocean 2014
Media: watercolor collaged with plastic that had been burnt using a blowtorch