Making a Point with Trash Art

It is one thing to talk about trash. It is another to try and make a point about why it matters. That was and continues to be the goal of my good friend Dr. Judy Dalgo, an avid outdoor enthusiast who decided to do something about it. Judy has been a trash collector for 20 years – picking up trash washed up on the Ocean Springs beach where she strolls to enjoy the view. And that is her point about trash – it destroys the view.

In her role as the Environmental Health and Health Science teacher with the Ocean Springs School System (now retired), Judy began to challenge her students to think about how trash impacts their lives. One assignment was to visit a body of water and pick up trash once a week for 6 months. The results were numerous shadow boxes that included a background picture with trash glued over them – making the point that trash pollutes the view.

Students included strips of paper with research-based facts about the impacts of each piece. Plastics in the food chain was a major topic, especially associated with marine debris – the trash Judy and her students picked up every week. Through a grant in 2011, the displays became large format trash-covered paintings on 6-foot by 3-foot canvases. Students planned their own art that, by most standards, are beautiful scenes of beaches, the ocean, or other common places we seek to enjoy. And each was then covered with the detritus of our lives.

Four of these panels are currently viewable at the Ocean Springs Library where their purpose is to make the point that our views are beautiful yet spoiled. The library uses these in programs about litter. Two more reside at the MSU Coastal Research & Extension Center in Biloxi. Judy and her students that created these pieces of Trash Art hope that their message resonates. But without more stories like theirs, Judy and many others like her will continue to fill their pails and buckets on their strolls through their favorite places.

And Judy is but one of many of my friends that do the same thing – pick up trash in their neighborhoods – trying to make a difference. For years I watched my friend Mary drag a plastic bag along the ditch in my neighborhood. My friends Steve, Mary Margaret, and Jessi regularly share their frustrations about their collections of trash that spoils their views along their walks. My wife Mary and our younger grandchildren pick up trash on their walks through our neighborhood. As Emilia (8 years old) likes to say, they are cleaning up the world. But how do we get more people to care?

That was and is the goal of Judy and her students – connecting trash directly to the beauty of the places we like to visit. Perhaps if we say it often enough, things may change. As Judy says, her efforts were focused on inspiring a love for where you live. We must try harder to make that point. Gluing trash on pieces of beautiful art is a noble attempt to do that.

The good news here is that for some of Judy’s former students, they not only learned the lesson, but continue to be inspired – joining Judy during early Sunday strolls on her favorite beach. We all need to appreciate their unheralded service and learn to care.

Afterall, stories shared through this news portal are supposed to be about good news. Let’s make good news about cleaner streets and beaches a regular thing.

Hope to see you in our great outdoors!

Photos courtesy of Mary LaSalle and Judy Dalgo