On the way to IOTAs... :-)

I will get fantastic chance to get my "emotional batteries" fully charged to start the IOTA operation in great mood.

Each year one of Geraldton's most prominent cultural centres - Latitude Gallery - makes very unusual event - offers to the public's attention art objects created by local artists.

The detail which makes the exhibition unique is that ALL art objects have been made by ... you will never believe... debris cleaned out of seas around Abrolhos Islands.

Latitude Gallery’s story began with Pia Boschetti otherwise known as ‘the girl who grows the pearl’ who started pearl farming in the family business in 2000.

Pia grew up at the Abrolhos Islands spending many months of the year there with her family whilst they were lobster fishing. Pia was the first baby baptised and also married in the island church. Working on the ocean for many years in many parts of the world, Pia embraced the opportunity to farm pearls at the Abrolhos Islands. She started Latitude Pearls initially to sell only her pearls and now it has evolved into Latitude Gallery as each piece that was being created she considered a work of art.

As part of clean up Australia Day, Latitude Gallery pioneered an annual clean up of the Abrolhos Islands, followed by a competition for locals to create a work of art from the debris.

The event was named by Pia as ‘Flotsam and Jetsam’ with Flotsam meaning ‘the wreckage of a ship or its cargo found floating on or washed up by the sea’ or ‘ things that have been rejected or discarded as worthless’, AND Jetsam meaning ‘unwanted material or goods that have been thrown overboard from a ship and washed ashore, especially material that has been discarded to lighten the vessel’.

I'm so proud and happy to get an invitation from Pia to the Opening Night.

No doubt, many photos will be taken by me and published here on on Facebook as a result of this great cultural and environmental event.

I believe the report will be met by you, my friends, with interest.

To be continued...