'It Takes A Changing Tide': Artist Transforms Beach Trash Into Treasure

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - A Massachusetts artist has found a creative way to clean up the beach. While her artwork is stunning, the sad fact is she has no shortage of raw material.

If you look closely at Jackie Ranney's artwork, you'll notice all kinds of surprises.

"Packaging material, screen door, bottle caps, I have a cone, plastic bottles," she tells CBS Boston station WBZ.

Ranney and her family moved to Hull in 2017. A lifelong artist, she immediately thought of ways to turn the trash that was washing ashore on nearby beaches into treasure.

"One day I saw a piece of trash and I think it was blue dock foam and it looked so beautiful. Once I took it off the beach and it wasn't trash anymore," she says.

Ranney goes for a walk on the beach near her house almost every day and always finds some litter.

"In every painting I use so many bags of trash. Probably five or six big plastic trash bags that I haul off the beach," she says.

In addition to the trash she collects, she tries to use all recycled materials and items that would otherwise be thrown out.

"I wanted to be able to combine my passion with protecting the environment and my advocacy for the oceans into my artwork," she explains.

Ranney hopes by incorporating that trash into her artwork, she can send a powerful message in the process.

"We can all do things as individuals. We're not powerless to make better choices about our single use plastic, we're not powerless to clean up the beach," she says, adding, "it takes a movement. It takes a changing tide. And that's what I want to pass on to people."

For more on Ranney's artwork, visit her website.