Tess Felix creates portraits from plastic debris. Her larger works include thousands of such pieces of plastic marine debris, layered and pasted to the canvas with silicon glue.  Felix finds most of her material on Stinson Beach in California. Often these items are curious remnants of our daily life, like parts of cell phones, discarded plugs, dental picks, bottle caps, fishing gear, old batteries, hairbrushes, and the surprisingly frequent plastic tubes and nets from oyster farming.

Felix’s mosaic portraits are a playful response to a serious issue—the perilous state of the ocean and our marine life. She seeks to capture the human soul by exploring serious issues with imagination and humor while aiming to spark curiosity and conversation. The contrast between the humanity of the figures and the plastic materials they are made of suggests that we are part of and responsible for the problem we have created.

Felix never paints any of the plastic bits and pieces she finds but leaves them in their “natural” state. She created her early series, “An Ocean In Crisis,” after a winter storm left countless plastic debris on Stinson Beach. 

Her recent series, “Ocean Eco Heroes,” celebrates people who are champions of the environment. Even though they are encased in beach trash, a serious purpose still shines through their eyes. While Felix admires ocean activists and leaders, her voice is that of an artist, and it is through her art that she speaks of the place, the people, and the ocean she loves.

Photo credit Kate Sterlin