TRASH TRANSFORMED

Prince Edward Island artist is turning beached garbage into art

Prince Edward Island artist pleased to be turning beached garbage into art

Somnia Lucent was concerned with all the beached garbage she found along the coast of Panmure Island.

The artist grew up in Montague and moved back from Vancouver over a year ago. When she saw how much debris was washing up on P.E.I.’s coastline, she decided to transform it into something people could better relate to.

Because one person’s trash is another artist’s art.

“At one point it was a valuable tool or material, and I’m trying to reframe the use of it.”

She started walking along the beaches of eastern P.E.I., hauling as much discarded waste as he could find into her mother’s Volkswagen Beetle. It’s a very physically demanding job, but even today she goes once a week to fill some tote bags.

“I’ve never left the beach with less than two,” she said. “I’ll pick everything up then sort it later.”

She cleans the garbage to get rid of the stink before transforming it. She paints buoys as needed, untangles netting as much as she can and cards fishing rope into a more delicate yarn, she said.

“It’s a very lengthy process.” The process is similar to sea glass, which is the result of erosion and can be found across P.E.I.’s beaches.

“Finding the harshness and making it soft,” she said.

Lucent enjoys working with the material, trying to be intuitive toward what it has become since being discarded. The final product reflects today’s environmental crisis of throwaway plastics floating throughout the planet’s oceans, she said.

“We didn’t have to take responsibility for it,” she said. “(But) we’re now seeing these plastics and garbage’s coming back to us.”

Her art display, titled Plastic Waves Art Still, is being showcased at Receiver Coffee Co. in Charlottetown until Aug. 23. Lucent’s display is supported by This Town is Small, an artistrun organization.

The display also features some unaltered debris and paintings to illustrate where the debris is coming from. Lucent noted the paintings look almost alien, which may reflect how unnatural the washed-up garbage is, she said.

She will also be showcasing her art for the first time at this year’s Art in the Open.

“It’s an extension of this project,” she said. “I hope I can make a presence here.”

The art will hopefully raise awareness toward what people consume, and inspire them to keep things clean, she said.

“It’s not just about beaches, but the environment as a whole.”

Transforming the garbage into art is her way of giving it a new purpose. Looking beyond its original purpose is an important part in finding new ways to help the environment, she said.

“Being creative and having an imagination will ultimately be the cure for this crisis.”

DANIEL BROWN/THE GUARDIAN. Somnia Lucent showcases one of her art pieces – a beached buoy and some netting which she transformed for her art display at Receiver Coffee Co. in Charlottetown. Her name is a pseudonym, in part because it better represents the kind of work she’s doing, she said.

SOMNIA LUCENT/SPECIAL TO THE GUARDIAN Somnia Lucent hauls some discarded caging and other garbage from a beach in Eastern P.E.I. She’s been turning the garbage into art for her display at Receiver Coffee Co. in Charlottetown.