By Julia Beauregard
Hometown Weekly Editor
Massachusetts artist Rebecca McGee Tuck traveled to the Westwood Public Library (WPL) to discuss art as a form of activism. Tuck is an artist and a sculptor whose work has been featured in exhibits across Massachusetts, including Fitchburg Art Museum, Cape Cod Art Museum, and Boston Sculptors Gallery. Apart from her work as an artist, Tuck is a proud ocean activist.
Her work is inspired and helped created by the discarded pieces of trash that she finds along the wrack line at Hummock Beach in Marshfield. The wrack line is the line of debris that high tide leaves as it recedes. She shared that she loves that her work gives new life to these discarded items.
Tuck shared that she walks this beach every day during the spring, summer and fall: “As I’ve been walking throughout my life, there’s always been something to pick up,” and this process of picking up this debris is “a huge inspiration for my work and my life really.” The artist picks up anywhere from 5 to 50lbs of trash every time she walks: “each time I go, I find different types of collections of things that I try to use.” One of her goals as both an artist and an activist is to use as much of the debris as she possible can as it will then take that debris out of the waste stream.
After bringing the material home, Tuck sorts it by material, color, and texture to get an idea of how she wants to use it. The body of work that has been produced through this artist initiative, Tuck has entitled “Along The Wrack Line.” The artist shared that she could make a sculpture every single day with all of the debris that she has collected.
“I’m trying to connect my experiences to a work of art so I can tell everyone what I’m doing,” Tuck explained, regarding this body of work. She went on to explain, “I found 150 balloons this season, just myself. So I needed to show that in some way. So I created a sculpture called ‘Happy Birthday Ocean.’”
Aside from creating this body of work, Tuck make other creations out of other materials that are in excess in our world, such as plastic bags. She doesn’t buy any material to make her art, but rather collects it. Tuck works along side the Surfrider Foundation to help take data of trash patterns to bring this data to lawmakers. She also works alongside the Center for Costal studies, an ocean clean-up group. Tuck has visited the State House to give a testimony for what trash patterns she has found at the beach to encourage lawmakers to do something about these materials.
The artist also hots community weaving projects with ocean debris in her town. “I really like these community engagement projects,” Tuck shared. She went onto share that she feels that these projects bring together art, activism and the story of trash. She encouraged all attendees to get involved in any way they can; participate in beach cleanups, advocate for policy changes, or engage in anti fossil fuel activism.
