Our environment no longer provides as it used to. We have contaminated what we thought was indestructible and plastic pollution is now the number one contaminant of all. We find it in our oceans, on land, in animals, in foodstuffs and now in our drinking water.
In response to this a year ago I started making headdresses (with the help of other artist friends) from my own plastic refuse and that of the schools and centres where I sometimes teach (disposable cutlery, plastic drinks containers, sandwich containers, bottles tops etc). I choose the headdress form for its aesthetic value and because of the link - if it’s on my head - it’s my responsibility! I then created a series of portraits of myself and my children wearing these plastic headdresses.
Last summer I was invited by a number of sustainable living festivals to exhibit these photographs and set up a photo booth and invite the public to have their portraits taken with the headdresses. The conversations started and ​'People against Plastic' was born. So I am now using art as a means to engage people from all walks of society and start meaningful conversations about what we as individuals can do; as I believe that it’s a problem that can truly be solved on an individual level.

I am a registered teacher and have 18 years experience working as a part-time art teacher in schools and in the community. Through a creative engagement process I have worked/am working with primary and secondary schools in Laois, Offaly, Cork City, and throughout County Dublin and am now visiting early school leaver centres and youth clubs and have begun really meaningful conversations about how to edge our way out of the current plastic crisis.
​In my portable photo-booth - (this is the single use photo booth) children and adults get to wear these plastic headdresses fashioned from our waste. We talk about the durability of the materials, I take their photos and only then when they see the resulting images can they see the enormity of the problem.
Educational package for youth groups and
​primary and secondary schools