Re-cycle * Re-use * Re-purpose
Ever since I was a little girl my parents taught me to be frugal, re-use and never waste anything. They would create delicious meals from food most would just throw away, repurpose old furniture or bits of building material into something new for the house.
I did not realise until very recently how much this has influenced me and my work. As soon as I started painting my seascapes, I started to think of ways I could use my work to try and help protect the thing that inspired me so much.
It feels so hard to know how you can help, that any act you do is so small it can’t make that much of a difference. But it does. If everyone starts to alter their habits, make little changes to help reduce the amount of landfill we have, how much litter we leave on a beach to end up in the ocean, it will all add up.
One of the first decisions I made when I started my business was to become a member of the Surfers Against Sewage business programme, where I donate monthly to the charity to help them protect the environment and ocean for future generations.
As part of my fashion buying job working in the surf industry, I have had a lot of exposure to water sports and surfboard manufacturing. One of the people I met many years ago was Brad Rochfort from Rochfort Customs. An incredibly talented surfboard shaper, I got talking to him one day about my work and how I was loving using texture and “things’ mixed into the paint. I had started experimenting with fabric and rope in my pieces and he told me how he had lots of fibreglass offcuts from the board making process that I could have if I wanted to have a play. With him aiming to be as zero waste as possible it pained him to throw them away, not being able to recycle them.
That then started my fascination with the extreme texture I could sculpt when I used the fibreglass. Once mixed with the paint I can manipulate it to curve like the crest of a breaking wave. It is wonderful to work with and means that it is being re-purposed and not thrown into landfill.
I then got thinking about surfboards…. always been desperate to paint directly onto a board I got chatting to Brad again. I knew he worked with a charity called Surfers Not Street Children and collected old, damaged surfboards from around the South West. He repairs the boards, destined for landfill, and then donates them to the charity in South Africa.
The organisation dedicates local teams of social workers, carers, surf coaches amongst many other professional services, to empower these children and transform their lives. Taking them from a life on the streets to running their own businesses, becoming lifesavers and even professional surfers.
The charity works with them giving them surf lessons and all the equipment they need to connect with the ocean. True ocean therapy and a moment for them to just connect with the water and its healing powers.
Every time I create a piece of board art using one of these re-purposed boards, I donate a portion of the sale to the charity to help them carry on their incredible work.
I hope the art I create brings the beauty of the ocean into other people’s homes, but I also hope that along the way I can do my bit to help others and to protect our beautiful oceans. They are a place of nourishment, serene peace and pure joy for me, so let’s ensure that we leave it that way for generations to come.
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