Seaweed Foraging | Art meets Ocean

I was born in the water, I like to think that was why I felt so drawn to the ocean but really this only became a more recent fascination. A few years ago I started swimming in the sea, mostly during warmer weather but over lockdown immersing myself in cold water was a form of therapy. Full body relief from tension of working or making, you feel completely free beneath the surface. Diving down to the ocean floor to admire various shells and crabs scuttling across the sand. Listening to pebbles rolling over with the swell and movement of water. Exploring through forests of kelp is where my fascination with seaweed began, incorporating it into my art and photography stemmed a passion for this particular area of marine conservation.

Trees are commonly referred to as the earth’s lungs, inhaling co2 and exhaling oxygen, but seaweed actually provides more than half of the oxygen we breathe (along with phytoplankton) which just adds to the long list of wonderful properties it holds. I used to be fearful of swimming around deep forests of kelp, and now I actively seek them out to photograph and swim through. There is so much life below the surface of the ocean that I feel so grateful to witness, document and share with others to help educate about the power and beauty of the sea.

Seaweed is miraculous in its properties, from foraging to use as a source of nutrients and minerals to using as plant fertilizer to encourage growth. But one of the most fascinating uses of this plant is incorporating just a small percentage into animal food to improve their coats of fur as well as drastically reducing the amount of methane output from animal agriculture, which is a brilliant way to help mitigate climate change.

I think it will continue to influence my art and all creative outlets for a long while to come. There is always more to learn and seek inspiration from when it comes to nature which is truly beautiful. We need to take less from it but allow it to inspire us more, for example what materials we use and how to connect more deeply to the energies around us in the wild. When we truly allow nature to behave in the way it intended, we can ground ourselves and strengthen this connection between people and the planet.