Angela Haseltine Pozzi
Angela was born in Portland, Oregon to a family of artists. Angela’s evolution as an artist shifted when she noticed immense amounts of plastic pollution on pristine southern Oregon beaches. As she learned more about ocean pollution from plastics and marine debris she became motivated to do something about it. Thus, the Washed Ashore Project was born. Angela decided to enlist the help of hundreds of local volunteers to clean up the beaches, and use all the debris to construct massive sculptures of the sea animals most affected by the pollution.
“As the beaches around the world wash up more stuff from the land and less from the sea I believe we must examine our relationship to rivers and oceans. I attempt to scoop up part of what might be below the blue waters and place it in front of us. In some ways it may be an escape, but at the same time a confrontation.”
Angela is intrigued with textures, patterns, and colors in the world around her. She sees the designs of sea creatures in familiar human made objects, and creates additional elements out of anything that works. Her childhood of wading in the Pacific ocean and digging in the muck of Puget Sound has greatly influenced her work. Being raised by parents who were artist and naturalists also brought her agate eyes into focus. These sculptures now tour as the “Washed Ashore Project” traveling exhibit, educating and inspiring countless people from diverse backgrounds to take action in their own lives to prevent contributing to this global problem. Her work continues as Lead Artist, designing and creating a multitude of sea creatures from the ongoing tons of marine debris with the goal to have a global impact. As the leader of a team of dedicated employees and hundreds of volunteers, Angela has vowed that this effort is her calling and “until we run out of plastic on the beach, we will keep doing our work.”
