Today, I am celebrating my second milestone since the inception of my Project, "A Sea Odyssey:2012" on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009. My goal was two-fold. First, to heal myself of depression brought on by reading in the SF Chronicle that our ice caps would be gone in 6 months. Second, to be part of the solution and raise awareness about the unsurmountable problem of plastic and the Great Pacific Gyre Patch. I reached my fist goal. Now, I am working for the second one.
When I started crocheting a sea dragon out of audiocassette tape 2 years ago, I could only imagine my success. Now, I am a well-seasoned textile artist and show my work in galleries. I transform plastic by sewing and heat-fusion into stunning haute couture. I grasped the attention of Paul Smith, the Director of Contemporary Opera of Marin, and am working on the creation of costumes and a giant Trash-A-Pus for an opera about trash and its impact on us.
As a performance artist and musician, I feel myself being beckoned like a moth to the flame. When I am strutting my stuff in my wearable arts, I ponder many questions, with the foremost one being, "What is my intention?". Some might say that I am burning my candle at both ends. They are concerned about whether wearing plastic next to my skin is dangerous. I don't know. Maybe. Probably. I am not complacent about the real dangers of working with plastic. I wear a respirator that protects me from noxious fumes when I fuse the plastic. Yet, I hold the possibility that all good causes come with a price to pay. Am I a martyr? Martin Luther King died for his Dream. My dream, to wear my garments as a spokes piece for raising awareness about the complex nature of plastic and for an audience to witness my costumes and sculptures made out of trash on an opera stage lives on...
Elise
