Meet the artist turning seafront rubbish into art for Portsmouth exhibitions

Now, one woman has vowed to do her bit for the environment by turning rubbish into works of art.

Candy Medusa, who grew up in Portsmouth, has been spreading a powerful message about the dangers of single-use plastics through her works, which were recently on display in the city.

She hopes that upcycling this waste will encourage people to either do the same, or think about what they are consuming in their daily lives.

Candy – who was also a founding member of the Hotwalls Studios in Old Portsmouth and now lives in Brighton – was inspired by a trip to the Caribbean three years ago, sampling marine plastics as part of an all-female crew with eXXpedition.

SEE ALSO: Art explosion puts historic Hot Walls on the cultural map

‘I’ve always been interested in the environment,’ she said.

‘But the more I looked into plastic pollution, the more I realised how big of a problem it is.

‘This is so much worse than any of us could imagine – it all decomposes into microplastics which will never go away, and are entering our food chain.’

Some of Candy’s work highlights the animals that are endangered by plastic waste, such as jellyfish, turtles and dolphins.

Despite hard-hitting documentaries such as David Attenborough’s Blue Planet, the 45-year-old believes that a softer touch could prove to be just as effective.

She said: ‘A lot of my work is canvasses of animals – other times I’m doing collages of sea creatures, but it’s all done using plastic that I find along the seafront.

‘When people see the horrifying truth about plastic waste, they can sometimes turn a blind eye because they don’t want to feel the weight of being responsible for that.

‘I see my artwork as being something those people can engage with and perhaps do themselves as a way of doing their bit.’

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