Washed Up Marine Debris Art Show opens Friday

Dennis Fujimoto/The Garden Island

Sequoia Maye stands before her “Round Earrings” work from her “Corroded Collection” for the Kaua‘i Society of Artists Washed Up Marine Debris Art Show that opens Friday at the KSA gallery at Kukui Grove Center in Lihu‘e.

Dennis Fujimoto / The Garden Island

Jay Dorrance stands before his “Pack Your Trash” pieces for the Kaua‘i Society of Artists Washed Up Marine Debris Art Show that opens Friday at the KSA gallery at Kukui Grove Center in Lihu‘e.

Dennis Fujimoto / The Garden Island

Jay Dorrance makes an adjustment to his “Pack Your Trash” entry into the Kaua‘i Society of Artists Washed Up Marine Debris Art Show that opens Friday at the KSA gallery in Kukui Grove Center in Lihu‘e.

Dennis Fujimoto / The Garden Island

A water jug full of plastic bottle caps and pieces of wood from her hammock results in an abacus by Abigail Boroughs in her work “Count the Trash,” part of the Kaua‘i Society of Artists’ Washed Up Marine Debris Art Show that opens Friday at the KSA gallery in Kukui Grove Center in Lihu‘e.

Given a water jug filled with plastic bottle tops and a piece of wood from the hammock, and Kaua‘i Society of Artists craftsman Abigail Borough ended up with an abacus to count the trash.

“Hob Osterlund (she wrote “Holy Moli,” the book on albatross) sent me this bottle full of caps from Midway,” Borough said. “I got some wood from a hammock, and now I have a way to ‘Count the Trash’ (ahead of June 8, World Oceans Day).”

Jay Dorrance of Kapahi has been picking up opala along the shorelines and converting it into ‘Pack Your Trash’ signs that he posts somewhere along the shoreline.

“I was looking through this magazine one day, and there was my sign,” Dorrance said. “It was a landscape photograph, and there was the sign. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I never thought I would see it in a magazine.”

And guess what washed up on shore?

At the risk of lessening the impact, viewers will have to see for themselves when the Kaua‘i Society of Artists opens its third Washed Up Marine Debris Art Show 2021, co-sponsored by the Surfrider Foundation Kaua‘i, starting Friday at the KSA gallery at Kukui Grove Center in Lihu‘e, with an artists’ reception from 5 to 8 p.m.

“This is exciting,” said Rose Anne Jones, KSA exhibit chairperson. “We are actually having an artists’ reception. Everyone must wear face masks and maintain social distancing according to the COVID-19 guidelines, but we are having the reception!”

Monika Mira, the Surfrider Kaua‘i Chapter’s “resident artist,” already submitted her entry for the 2021 exhibit that opens just ahead of June 8 being observed as World Oceans Day, an opportunity to inform the public of the impact of humans on the ocean.

“It’s a big one,” Borough said. “Monika always makes big things, like the jellyfish that ran floor to ceiling during last year’s exhibit.”

Sequoia Maye just moved back to Kaua‘i, and brings a fresh look with her “Corroded Collection,” featuring jewelry created out of shoreline and marine findings.

The show will run June 4 through July 2. Hours are noon to 6 p.m. daily, and Friday from noon to 7 p.m.

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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.

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