deep deep trouble

2010-03-17T15:46:00.000-07:00

2009-11-27T11:00:00.000-08:00

nature/nurture

2009-11-24T13:27:00.001-08:00

Cape Cod collection

2009-11-02T14:48:00.000-08:00

over the summer i visited the beaches of my childhood on Cape Cod. this is a shot of some yankee-style plastic pollution that i teased out of the seaweed tangle at the high water mark.

interview with the san franista, emily goligoski

2009-09-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

i met local culture coverage/cool hunter, emily goligoski, at the indie mart last month. i was thrilled that she wanted to hear about my work. read the Q+A here:

http://emilygoligoski.com/index.php/deep_trouble/

she begins:

“I’ve been going to fewer art fairs in the past few months because the wares are starting to look the same: they’ve become a haze of quilted totes, oversized sunglasses, and animal themes (please bring an end to the owls). So it was refreshing to see local designer Beth O’Rourke’s Deep Deep Trouble in Potrero recently–her repurposed found items manage to be both entertaining and startling. Concerned that “plastics are poisoning our oceans,” she started crafting one-off objects featuring snarky language and trash (and yes, you will actually want them, despite how that sounds).”

indie mart booth!

2009-08-19T18:55:00.000-07:00

what a great day: lot’s of sun, constant conversation, new friends, positive feedback, and plenty of smart suggestions regarding how to evolve the work and where to show it. many, many thanks to luke for printing and constructing the backdrop; it really pulled everything together nicely.

indie mart flyer production

2009-07-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

city stamp + sign here in sf (ask for doreen - she’ll take good care of you) produced some great rubber hand stamps that i printed on some cut up cast-offs prints of the photos.

2009-07-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

deep deep trouble @ indie mart: sunday august 16th, 12-6pm at thee parkside, san francisco

2009-07-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

just got the word that my work's been accepted for the august 16th indie mart here in sf and i am really looking forward to it. for more info, go to http://www.indie-mart.com/.
thee parkside is located at 1600 17th Street, sf, ca 94107 http://www.theeparkside.com/.
see you there!

2009-07-05T17:50:00.000-07:00

2009-06-26T18:18:00.000-07:00

2009-05-15T20:59:00.000-07:00

these are living @ mollusk surf shop for a while, along with a few others. thanks, john.

industrial disease, social disease

2009-04-28T17:57:00.000-07:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease

here to stay

2009-03-20T11:43:00.000-07:00

How can anyone have a need for such useless [garbage]?

2009-03-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

this nyt article is right on.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/opinion/08friedman.html?_r=1

we are surrounded

2009-03-14T19:26:00.000-07:00

flotsam + jetsam

2009-03-13T21:14:00.001-07:00

ocean beach bounty bummer

2009-03-07T16:26:00.000-08:00

Plastic enters the ocean via...

2009-03-07T16:15:00.000-08:00

...waste disposal from merchant and fishing vessels, offshore dumping, accidental or deliberate discharge of the raw pellets used by the plastics industry (Joyner & Frew 1991), material left behind by beachgoers, and waste carried into the oceans by rivers and drainage systems (Pruter 1987, Williams & Simmons 1997). Plastic is found in the surface waters of all of the world’s oceans and poses a potential hazard to much marine life, including seabirds through entanglment or ingestion (Laist 1987).

excerpted from:
http://www.marineornithology.org/PDF/32_2/32_2_187-189.pdf

addictions of modern life

2009-02-27T11:48:00.000-08:00

simply dispose of after use

2009-02-27T11:34:00.000-08:00

so convenient!

2009-02-26T19:36:00.000-08:00

fresh catch

2009-02-26T16:36:00.000-08:00

there's a great future in plastics

2009-02-25T22:30:00.001-08:00

plastic, plastic everywhere

2009-02-25T12:38:00.000-08:00

almost every day i spend time in or around the north pacific ocean, my adopted home for the last eighteen years. i grew up on the atlantic, an entire continent's width away. as a child, i remember when georges bank was closed due to depleted fisheries. that was the beginning of my realization that one of our most precious resources — our vast, silent, powerful ocean — was suffering from serious abuse, in this case over-fishing.

picking up trash on and around the beach can be both a positive activity as well as positively frustrating excercise. years ago, after a particularly raucous storm, i filled bags and bags with bits of plastic, large and small. for a long time, the bags sat in my garage, holding, i'd guessed, some kind of story or message. i thought about renting a space and filling clear plastic cylinders of varying widths floor to ceiling with the trash; a shameful greek temple. then, as it often does, sarcasm/turn-of-phrase, and practicality took over. i decided to work in a small scale, due to space, money, and the urgency which with which i wanted to produce the pieces, casting the plastic and transparent film (words) in 3" x 6" polyester resin molds.

while plastics have made modern life 'easier', they have created an incredibly serious problem that has only just begun to benefit from close investigation. This project is my small effort to contribute to the visibility of this urgent issue: our oceans (and lives) are choked with plastic. in other words, we're surrounded.