Janis FontaineA prominent scientist delivers her urgent message through a West Palm Beach art exhibition.
Pods of people gathered around the huge table in Resource Depot’s second-floor art studio to help artist Kat Owens craft her latest project: an 80-foot fin whale made of recycled plastic.
Owens hosted the “Whale Makers” workshop as part of her exhibition, “Entangled and Ingested: The Work of Katharine Owens,” which is on display through Aug. 15 in the Pam Sartory GalleRE in West Palm Beach.
Owens’ work features species that have scientific records of being subject to entanglement and ingestion from pollution. They’re made by sewing recycled bits of plastic patchwork-style onto lightweight canvas. She uses clean, recycled garbage, because real ocean garbage is “really gross.”
Owens’ exhibition calls attention to the ways plastic harms fish and mammals.
SavingOceanWildlife.org estimates that more than 14 million tons of plastics pour into our marine ecosystems annually. The three main sources are litter (such as bags, containers and packaging), fishing nets and single-use plastics such as bottles and utensils.
A mind for science, a heart for art
That figure doesn’t surprise Owens, who is more formally known as Dr. Katharine Owens, a National Geographic Explorer, Fulbright-Nehru Fellow, and chair of the Department of Politics, Economics and International Studies at the University of Hartford. She is a well-known plastic pollution researcher.
But at her core, she is an artist who loves nature, especially insects. Her first degree was in studio art from the College of Charleston.
“I think that the power of art is that it can make an impression,” Owens said. “Certainly, more of an impression than the scientific articles that I write that are only read by other scientists who already know this is a big problem. I wanted to do this art project to get beyond the scientific community and try to connect with regular people.”
In 2021, she started working on “Entangled and Ingested,” to create 50 life-sized animal portraits from discarded plastics.
She collaborated with organizations including the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
Now she’s on her second series of portraits, which will feature almost 75 additional species. There’s no shortage of materials or subjects.
“There are over 500 different species with records of entanglement or ingestion,” Owens said. “Part of what I’m trying to do is to get people to make that connection between what they buy and where it ends up, because it’s so easy for us to put it out of mind.”
Owens’ worldwide mission to clean up the planet coincides with the work the people at Resource Depot have been doing since the facility opened in 1999, so it was only natural (ahem) that Owens and Resource Depot would discover each other. Owens offered one of her pieces for an exhibit in the GalleRE. It was too big for that exhibit, but it opened the door for this solo show.
Creative reuse reduces waste
The GalleRE is just one facet of this multipurpose space near Belvedere Road and Dixie Highway. Part recycling facility, part flea market, part trendy boutique, part school and art supply store and part teaching studio, its primary purpose is to reduce the amount of stuff that ends up in our oceans and landfills by rescuing perfectly good materials for repurposing from “waste into wonder.”
Resource Depot’s retail and donor relations manager, Amy Grossman, tracks every donation by weighing it when it comes through the door. There are a few things they don’t accept, like clothing and anything dirty.
“Everything that comes in here is hand-sorted,” Grossman said. “Everything is tested. If something isn’t new, we make sure all the pieces are there.”
Last month, RD collected more than 16,800 pounds of stuff. Almost all of it was reusable. In the last decade alone, RD has diverted more than 2.2 million pounds of materials from the waste stream.
Chelsea Odum, director of education and artist relations, said it’s hard when you have a message you think everyone knows.
“I take for granted the knowledge I have. I think that everyone knows there are macro and microplastics in the ocean. But they don’t, so we have to continue to spread that knowledge outside of our bubble.”
Resource Depot does that by supporting the artist community through art exhibits, selling low-cost supplies (sold by the bin for $5 or $10) and free and low-cost art classes.
Guests can peruse the collection of recycled décor or purchase trash-to-treasure one-of-a-kind items created by local artists in the boutique. Anyone can donate things they no longer want or need.
Lots of the stuff gets used in-house.
Last year, RD’s after-school program served more than 1,000 students and produced 500 project kits distributed to local schools. These handmade kits include lesson plans tied to one of the exhibitions.
“It’s a way to experience the exhibition without actually being able to come here,” Odum said.
Each month is packed with programs designed to tickle your creative bone. “You don’t need to be an artist to be creative,” Odum said, “And you don’t need to have a lot of money to make art. This is not an unobtainable highbrow thing. Art is for the masses.”
All of RD’s employees have an art background, Grossman said. “We also have teaching artists who go out to community centers and schools to teach kids about reusing, repurposing, recycling and rethinking.”
But the more we take out and reuse, the more plastic companies manufacture, Owens said.
Policy change is slow and hard to quantify, Owens said.
“What I’ve learned is that policy change is incremental and it takes place very slowly over time. And the environment is often treated like an afterthought. People think, ‘when we figure out everything else, then we can deal with the environment.’”
If you go:
“Entangled and Ingested: The Work of Katharine Owens”
When: 11 am-5 pm Tuesday-Thursday, and 9 am-2 pm Saturday through Aug. 15
Where: The Pam Sartory GalleRE at Resource Depot, 2508 Florida Ave., West Palm Beach
Contact: 561-882-0090 or the Resource Depot website
Summer programs:
Junk Lab for kids in grades K-5 meets from 3-4:30 pm Wednesdays for creative artmaking using scraps and found objects. Register in advance. $20.
Recycled Reads: A Community Book Exchange — Find your next summer read and get rid of a few of the books taking up space at your house with this community exchange. Bring a book, take a book or three! Book folding demos are also planned on the hour. Donations welcomed. Free. 9 am-2 pm Saturday, June 27.
Family GalleRE Workshop: Window Wonders: A workshop inspired by Dr. Katharine Owens’ “Entangled and Ingested” series and designed for families creating together. The $20 admission includes parent/guardians and children, with a maximum of four people per ticket. 10 am-noon Saturday, July 25. Advanced registration required. Get tickets here.
New Volunteer Orientation takes about 30 minutes on a Saturday and it’s offered once a month; upcoming dates are July 18, Aug. 15 and Sept. 19. New volunteers are required to attend orientation. Register and download the Volunteer Handbook online.
Find more programs and events here.
