We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michelle Lougee a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Michelle, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

“Artist” was an early identity for me. When I drew animals in kindergarten, all the other children crowded around and wanted me to draw one for them. I grew up and went to art school and got my degrees in Sculpture. Upon graduation, I had to decide what had meaning for me and what I wanted my work to be about. I’m from rural Massachusetts and my thoughts kept coming back to a reverence for and an increasing anxiety about nature and our environment. Since then I’ve used post consumer materials in innovative and contemplative ways to expose and lament the ubiquity of plastic in our culture and environment.

I started working with post consumer plastic bags years ago when I learned about the plastic debris choking our oceans. Originally I made recognizable ocean creatures, but soon became enamored of microscopic organisms like diatoms and Dinoflagellates in the ocean. They have incredible otherworldly structures which coincidentally mimic the open structure of crochet. I learned to crochet to make these sculptures with “plarn” i.e. plastic yarn. Consequently I haven’t worked very much with actual yarn! Through my projects and research I’ve learned about how plastic impacts the environment and the effects of climate change. Plastic photodegrades in sunlight breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces without ever truly going away. Less than 10% of all plastic ever produced has been recycled — the rest will stick around for centuries in our landfills, oceans, waterways and other wild spaces. Recycling is NOT the answer, less than 10% of plastics are actually recycled.

Much of my time is spent collecting and sorting plastic and finding ways to store it compactly. I have many friends, fellow artists and students who collect plastic for me. It’s a large collection! On the upside, the work I do is very lightweight and portable, both for work hours during down time and for exhibition.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My work aims to warn about and expose the amount of single use plastic in our culture. Community Art projects are a fabulous way to amplify that message, have conversations, make alliances and take action. They are also a lot of fun!

I’ve been fortunate to work with public art curator Cecily Miller on several community based public art projects. Working on these projects and engaging the community in conversation about ubiquitous plastic has added dimension to my practice. Persistence, made up of 37 sculptures made from post consumer plastic bags, was installed on the Minuteman Bike Path in Arlington, MA in the summer of 2020. Community members collected, sorted and crocheted forms for my designs during meet ups and workshops. The Covid pandemic hit and we pivoted to Zoom meetings and dropping off materials and picking up finished forms in a socially distant safe manner. Many participants reported being very grateful to have the project to be involved with during that spring.
Cecily Miller and I also worked together to welcome MassAudubon’s Urban Nature center to Cambridge. Alongside community members, we created a 11 x 15’ plastic tapestry composed of colorful single use plastic bottle caps and other small bits of unwanted plastic.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Contact Info:

• Website: www.michellelougee.com
• Instagram: @michellelougee
• Facebook: Michelle Lougee

Image Credits
Dave Barnum, Will Howcroft photography, JD Cohen Photography, Asia Kepka