Title: Ashore

Material: Shells, glass, Styrofoam

Size: 12 inches L x 14 inches W x 12 inches H

I aimed to create something that represents life and decay. My work explores the emphasis on a few topics surrounding sea life. The relationship between beauty and death varies metaphorically throughout my work. First, I created a large-scale clam shell out of smaller clam shells. There is a debate on whether or not shells are living things.  A living mollusk will grow a shell, but it’s more of an exoskeleton than a living part of the body. The shell is not living, but the body inside the shell is living. When the organism dies, the shell is left behind. People will kill a living clam, oyster, or mussel with a 50% chance of a pearl.

Second, I created a pearl entirely made of crushed glass. The crushed glass is a symbol of decay and harm. Beach glass is considered a beautiful treasure found at the beach, but we seem to forget where it actually comes from. It comes from visitors leaving broken beer bottles on the beach, the glass being sucked into the body of water, and it becoming a part of the underwater habitat. Yes, erosion and salt water make the glass very smooth and pretty, but we forget to think about where the other glass goes. How many sea creatures ingest that glass? How harmful is this to these animals for a precious collector’s item? Same concept goes for the hunting of a pearl.

The shell is 12 inches tall, 14 inches wide, and 12 inches deep. The “pearl” is 3 inches by 3 inches. This work is made entirely out of organic/natural products; shells, glass, and Styrofoam.