Harry Delorme

For more than 30 years, Harry has used found materials in his paintings and installations, many of which deal with environmental concerns such as development, habitat loss, global warming, and plastic pollution. In recent works, since 2012, including functional items made from found plastic objects, photographs, map and photo-based relief paintings and assemblages made with plastic items retrieved from the banks of the Savannah River near the McQueen’s Island Trail. “Plastic beaches” – sites where postconsumer plastic washes up on riverbanks and shorelines – are an increasing and disturbing phenomenon. Works in his current series include representations of the historic trail, painted from satellite maps or from landscape photographs he takes on site. These paintings are color matched and covered with found plastic objects washed up on the shores of the Savannah River near the trail. These items - which are dumped into waterways, washed away during storms, lost or tossed overboard from watercraft - include a wide cross-section of consumer plastic items. In the world’s oceans, huge swaths of floating plastic bottle caps, cigarette lighters, toothbrushes, and smaller plastic particles lurk just under the waves great garbage gyres. These items are sometimes consumed by and kill birds, fish, and other sea life. Even more insidious are microplastic particles and fibers found throughout our local waterways and in local marine life.