Tracy McCoey

  As a Marine Biologist I am interested in the connection between society and the oceans.  Although we live a terrestrial life, our relationship with the sea is vital to both culture and our existence.  Whereby the sea goes, so do we.  As an environmental artist and activist, I strive to amplify the messages and warnings the oceanic world is sending out, while exploring the unfamiliar world beneath the sea.  The processes of Fine Art Printmaking become part of the narrative of my work, evoking the biological processes being explored – using etching, for example where the salt eats the metal to produce my images of bleached coral resulting from the growing acidity of the water which stresses the coral reefs.  Currently I am printing with black ink on black paper and exposing the paper to the sun and elements which will help to reveal the black-inked images as the paper fades.  I have branched out into ceramics and textiles to highlight the ecofeminist nature of my work.  Climate change will affect the most vulnerable and least powerful and turn our planet into a different place.  I am creating textile pieces which I coat in ceramic slip and fire, burning the original fabric away, leaving something new.

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