Outlaw Artist Uses 225,000 Plastic Straws

to make a 3d map of Chesapeake Bay

A map of the Chesapeake Bay as you’ve never seen it was on display at Baltimore’s Artscape festival this past weekend.

The six-feet-by-ten-feet 3D relief map of the entire Bay is made of roughly 225,000 plastic straws, weighs 500 pounds, and is equipped with a stunning LED light display.

Artist Kasey Jones has been working with the National Aquarium on environmentally-inspired art installations for the past six Artscape festivals, held in the shadow of Baltimore’s Penn Station and billed as the nation’s largest free arts festival.

Kasey Jones

It would be kind of cool in my basement.

This year, the piece titled A Ripple Effect was born from a partnership with Washington, D.C.’s Our Last Straw Coalition, a group that pushed for D.C.’s new plastic straw ban.

Using straws left over when the ban went into effect, Kasey cut each piece of plastic with a mini-band saw, and glued each one by hand in five varying lengths, to recreate the topography of the Chesapeake Bay region. The artist, a masters-degree graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) tells Bay Bulletin she used 40 pounds of hot glue to affix the straws to a wood frame that was outfitted with LED lights by a professional LED artist. The entire project was covered with a plexiglass layer, and had to be transported in two parts. The process took 200 work hours over the course of five weeks.

Kasey's Instagram here.  She has some "interesting" projects.

Well now, at least that's 225,000 turtles we don't have to worry about.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Claudia Cardinale raring to go at The Other McCain.