Permanent Impressions: Jamie Treacy & Brian Wilson’s class

Grades 9-12, Richmond High School

Plastic’s usefulness is its permanence—and its downfall. We created this project by gathering and collaging single-use plastics from packaging and our consumer lifestyles to create collagraph printmaking plates and intaglio prints. We discovered how these same plastics affect everything from our oceans, forests, and our personal health.

Jamie Treacy, smiling with collagraph plate and intaglio art of his students behind

Jamie Treacy, Visual Arts teacher at Skyline High School (Oakland)

 

    Media used:

    Collagraph plate: Single use plastics & mixed media on masonite

    Print: Limited edition intaglio print

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“My work was inspired by the greenwashing many companies do. Often these companies will slap a “green” label on their products and advertise it as the improved version, when in reality nothing about the product has changed.”

– Lydia M. Santiago de Lourdes

“[My piece] shows how we have overused and abused our environment through plastic consumption. We’ve become so blinded by it that humans have begun to ingest plastic toxic to us, the world, and the oceans we love so dearly.”

– James Harriman

“My artwork portrays the result of mass-produced single-use plastics. We must reduce our reliance on plastic packaging. If not, the ocean and marine life will experience negative effects that will leave them forever entrapped.”

– Olivia Viale