Ocean Plastic Painter Emilyn Golden

A little taste of reality…

“I want you to see what I see… I see epic skies, majestic waterfalls and vibrant forests. I see quiet islands, changing tides and the vast ocean full of life… But I also I see washed up plastic bags and styrofoam bobbing alongside the birds. I see cigarette butts following me on my hikes and bottle caps making their way down the storm drains… I want you to see this spectacular beauty, and its reality.” -Emilyn Golden

My ocean plastic painting…

Every week I take my toddler, Mason, down to the beach to dig holes, build castles and do a big clean up. He gets a shovel and a dump truck to put the trash he collects in and it seems all fun and games. I look forward to teaching him why it’s there - and more importantly, why it should not be there, and what we can do about it. This is why I am incorporating it into my art - to have this conversation. I keep the soft plastics to clean and use in my art. The plastic is in the foreground of my paintings, hidden in plain sight - just as it is in nature.

PLASTIC POLLUTION FACTS & STATS

  • Plastic pollution can now be found on every beach in the world, from busy tourist beaches to uninhabited, tropical islands.

  • Scientists have recently discovered microplastics embedded deep in the Arctic ice.

  • In 1950, the world’s population of 2.5 billion produced 1.5 million tons of plastic; in 2016, a global population of more than 7 billion people produced over 320 million tonnes of plastic. This is set to double by 2034.

  • Every day approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans.

  • Plastics consistently make up 60 to 90% of all marine debris studied.

  • Recent studies have revealed marine plastic pollution in 100% of marine turtles, 59% of whales, 36% of seals and 40% of seabird species examined.

  • 100,000 marine mammals and turtles and 1 million sea birds are killed by marine plastic pollution annually.

Get involved with Ocean Conservation! Here are two organizations I volunteer with…

Get involved with local beach cleanups
SURFRIDER VANCOUVER
@surfridervan

Local kids education for ocean conservation
SEASMART SCHOOL
@seasmartschool