You can often find Jennifer Hawke meandering the beach around Quartermaster Harbor with a large bag, filling it with found objects washed ashore, that she then, like an alchemist, turns into captivating works of art.
“I can fill up an 18 gallon Ikea bag in about 20 minutes, no problem,” Hawke said.
Hawke, who has lived on the island for 15 years, got her start in using found objects when her father opened an antique store in 1998. Old books, parts of chairs, photographs and bits that were headed to the trash bin became something new again in the hands of Hawke. When she moved to the island, she focused on the beach.
Hawke’s studio contains baskets and boxes of plastics that she sorts by color. What she loves about this work is the level of engagement from the community. Often times Hawke gets help from other beach walkers or speaks with naturalists about their findings. From bits of plastic to large pieces of painted wood collected from the beach, she has forged a collection she calls “Love Notes from Quartermaster Harbor.”
“I feel our socialization makes us disposable and that beach is a reflection of what we are doing to ourselves,” Hawke wrote in an email. “I am picking up what we have discarded and bringing back those memories to reconsider what we are throwing away.”
One of her favorite pieces was a recovered partial boat hull with original linseed oil soaked wool stuck in between the planks. As she worked on this, “old boat guys” would watch and offer stories of their own experiences crafting boats.
“There is no such thing as a pristine place anymore and when we see these things [garbage] we get so upset and triggered and I get exhausted by that,” Hawke wrote. “I want to step off the emotional carousel and examine where we can actually be effective on how we see the environment and each other.”
Corresponding with the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, Hawke’s next show together with Brian Dempsey and Renée Marceau entitled “Earth + Heart: Art as threshold between nature and the human experience” will begin Apr. 4 at the Vashon Center for the Arts.
