MEDIUM: Sculpture

STUDIO LOCATION: 20 Vernon, 6th flr, studio #81

WEBSITE: www.michellelougee.com

Instagram: @michellelougee

Plastic horrifies and beguiles me. It is ever-present and miraculous, life saving and life threatening, essential, overused, enduring and disposable. My work, created from post- consumer plastic, examines the relationships between humans, plastic, and nature amidst irreversible environmental changes. Committed to working with discarded materials while embodying Victorian era resourcefulness results in a labor intensive, obsessive practice of collecting, sorting, and processing plastic. I create material confusion by making visual associa- tions between found plastic and organic materials. Plastic objects are often transformed or embellished (with more plastic) using traditional fiber hand techniques introducing the element of time and nostalgia. Natural objects are incorporated or referenced to memorialize and reflect upon the exquisite magic of our planet. Humor, hope and loss coexist in work that is simultaneously about past, present, future, nature and a material that never goes away.