Heaven & Earth 3

For the third annual Center on Contemporary Art Heaven & Earth outdoor exhibit, Teresa created “Holdfast” to explore themes of habitat protection and human interaction with nature. Using reused plastic shopping bags, she created fused plastic salmon “pillows” that anchor to a rock – recalling the root-like tendrils seaweed sprout to stabilize themselves. Seaweed, actually algae, provide habitat for young salmon and hiding places for other beach critters including sea stars and newly molted crab. Seeing the plastic salmon shapes floating in the water at higher tides evokes images of the Pacific Trash Vortex – an indicator of what damage we are capable of creating through neglect. “Holdfast” interacts with the water, changing as tides ebb and flow, and reminds us that as we interact with nature we have the power to impact, for better or worse, our natural world.