Beach Treasures?

In front of our place there is an 18km beach of soft, yellow, ultra fine sand. In fact the sand is so fine, that it squeaks when you walk and inevitably you find some in your ears, between your toes and in your underwear for days. I'm so lucky to be living next to the beach, something I could never afford in Vancouver.

Unlike Vancouver beaches which have interspersed logs to lean on, here vendors set up umbrellas and chairs every morning which you can sit in for the price of about $7-9. They serve an array of cold drinks and snacks. Sadly because of this service the beach is covered in plastic bottle caps, bottles, beer cans, straws and straw wrappers. Today I tested the bottle cap count. I walked along the beach for one hour. Every time I saw a cap or a piece of plastic right in my path, I picked it up. I didn't walk out of my way, just walked straight. Here is a picture of my loot. (This scares me because it's winter now, and the beach is pretty empty, imagine in summer.)

On a more positive note, this loot beckons for art project, doesn't it? Like these super cool robots or these fun cars. 

I wonder if I could pull off something like this "Tide" chandelier made by Stuart Haygarth?




If you've never seen the winner of the Audience Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival "Wasteland", make sure you rent it! It's a fascinating movie about an artist who transformed the lives of the "garbage pickers" in Rio's dump, the largest in the world. My "little loot" doesn't even compare to the images you will see in this film and the beautiful art that was made with the mountains of garbage collected by the pickers.