I was inspired to create this piece to bring awareness to trash that is being dumped in our oceans and waterways. I discovered that plastic straws are being found in sea turtle's noses and that sea turtles are eating plastic bags because they think its food such as jellyfish. I also found out that there are islands of trash floating in our oceans.

When I had finished painting this project, some of my friends were very upset with me that I was going to "ruin it” by putting trash on it. I told them, “That’s the point because the sealife doesn't like the trash either!” I used Leighton Lum’s photograph of a sea turtle (with permission) as a model for my work.