This past week I have been working on a new interactive sculpture centered around the truths about cigarette butts for the Cali Roots Festival held in Monterey, CA, A butt of butts! This weekends goal was to have something interactive for the 10,000 attendees to participate with and learn more about how the butts affect the local and global marine environment-mission accomplished!
The sculpture was showcased at the Save Our Shores booth to educate about how it is the most found item at beach clean ups and to educate about the plastic found in cigarette filters, which do not biodegrade. Very few visitors to the booth knew that the butts contain plastics and were excited to share this new information with others to promote litter free habits. Did you know...38% of a beach clean up is just cigarette butts! GROSS!!!
Another insightful interaction was with ex-smokers. Seeing their interaction with the work and relate to how much a smoking habit produces waste. They also viewed that a lot of money was spent on their habit and the butt sculptor possibly represented a large supply. Multiple current smokers were enthusiasitcally sharing with us their pocket, portable ashtrays. Click this link to learn more.
To start this sculpture I began collecting the butts which didn't take as long I thought because THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!!!! I then created the paper mache and cardboard base shape then went to work gluing on each butt. I finished the two cheeks and the upper half and allowed room for the public to help finish the rest. Once at the festival, I set up hot glue guns, gloves, hand sanitizer, and extra butts! Visitors had full creative license to place butts where they pleased.
Attendees were surprised that cigarette butts are the most found object on beach clean ups globally. However, they were not surprised because people see them everywhere! At one point, several people brought handfuls of "butts" found at the festival venue. The sculptor will be shown Friday, June 1st at Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History for the Ebb and Flow Arts Festival from 5:30 PM- 11:00 PM.
