Using discarded household plastic, Katharine Owens, an artist and poli sci professor at the University of Hartford, creates life-size wall hangings of sea creatures and birds that are endangered by eating or getting entangled in ocean waste. She hopes to exhibit the series of 46 all together when they’re done.
Connect with Kat on Instagram @katowens2012 and on TT @kathaowens; her website is katowens.com.
Below is one of three whales she’ll complete with the help of schoolchildren from across Connecticut and on Fishers Island, NY. Kat invites them to sign their work.
Below: I helped, too! (“Lotta DNA on this,” says Kat.)
Some finished seabirds below:
Below: “Trash talking” via Zoom:
Below: Kat’s mural of a sealion displayed in Kat’s home office, where she stores bins full of plastic:
Open Studio 