The Annual Repurpose Series

A recycled Earth Day art series made from a year of drips, scraps and new skills learned in the studio.

Thank you collectors! The 2023 Repurpose series generated $400 for Surfrider Pacific Rim’s ocean cleanup initiatives.

Looking for the 2023 Repurpose series? The remaining items have been sorted into the relevant Functional Art galleries.

2023 Beneficiary

Partial proceeds from the 2023 Repurpose series will benefit Surfrider Pacific Rim, a nonprofit chapter that helps protect coastal BC’s ecosystems by organizing beach cleanups, providing education and advocacy about single-use plastics, and working to replace polystyrene floatation devices from docks, among many others. Read more about their initiatives here.

 The Story of the Original Repurpose Series

To celebrate Earth day and my 40th birthday in 2020, I made an art series out of recycled materials and runoff paint. These pieces contain drips, scraps and happy memories from each piece of artwork I make in the course of a year. Repurpose has an unusual origin story - years ago, it was inspired by an internet troll’s message that my art was “garbage” and a waste of paint.

Occasional comments like these are just part of being on public social media - I know my work isn’t garbage - but I’ve always been concerned about waste in the fluid art process. What was meant as negativity inspired me to try making a whole series from garbage - runoff paint and used up aprons and brushes that would otherwise be thrown away. I enjoyed it so much I decided to make Repurpose an annual birthday tradition, honouring a different environmental cause each year.

Made with Recycled Materials

Since I first started paint pouring in 2017, I’ve been saving my runoff paint drips. I didn’t know what to do with them at first, but I realized that I love them because they represent time. In their layers is the progression from when I first started acrylic pouring, to when I rented my first studio, to now. They’re also not just my paint drips, they’re the sum of all the paintings of the community of people that visited my studio as well to paint with me. 

This series merges these drips and the techniques I’ve built on in my first 40 years with several new skills. I learned how to use my band saw for some of the functional art pieces, and took on jewelry making for the first time, as ways to use up the extra drips of resin from my other projects.

Prior Beneficiaries

Repurpose 2023 benefited Surfrider Pacific Rim, a nonprofit chapter that helps protect coastal BC’s ecosystems by organizing beach cleanups, providing education and advocacy about single-use plastics, and working to replace polystyrene floatation devices from docks.

Repurpose 2022 benefited the Marine Education and Research Society and their work to monitor and protect marine life in British Columbia.

Repurpose 2021 benefited Pacific Wild’s salmon monitoring program in British Columbia. Read my interview with Pacific Wild here, and learn about the work that they do for the environment.

Repurpose 2020 benefited Global Giving’s Costa Rica project, which purchases equipment and resources to local rangers for conservation. We visited some of these sites, and saw the wildlife cameras in action.