Artist Angela Haseltine Pozzi treats art as a form of healing. After her husband died tragically from a stroke, she looked for new meaning in life and went to the ocean to heal. What she found was an ocean that needed healing.
It was then that the Washed Ashore Project was born. Aiming to clean the oceans as well as raise awareness about plastic pollution, the non-profit project is centered around a simple but brilliant idea: using plastic waste to create life size animal sculptures that are both striking and alarming.
The sculptures are created by volunteers in workshops and staff under the direction of Pozzi. Over 10,000 volunteers have helped clean beaches and worked with Washed Ashore to process over 20 tons of debris into over 70 sculptures of the animals affected by plastic pollution.
The organization also partners with schools, state parks, service groups, youth centers, and local businesses to spread the word about the dangers of plastics pollution and to teach citizens to become better stewards of the ocean.
Take a look at some of Pozzi’s inspiring creations.
