Plastic bottle caps are usually not recycled. This was something that ignited the creativity of political artist Mary Ellen Croteau, who produces art that serves as a social critique. Thus, she decided to give new life to ordinary plastic caps by turning them into a self portrait.
Mary Ellen used thousands of plastic bottle caps to create her 8 feet by 7 feet self portrait titled CLOSE. She created color combinations by stacking diffrent colored caps together. But she didn't stop at that. She created another piece called My Eye, which presents a magnified view of one of her eyes as it appears in her self portrait.
Her art is definitely an innovative way of using up plastic that would otherwise end up accumulating as waste. In Brazil, a group of artists with the same environmental concern used thousands of plastic bottles to create a giant fish sculpture by the sea.
my work is my voice: a social critique and a visual challenge to all the cultural detritus we are force-fed every day. My art is about looking at things in a slightly different way, and is intended to undermine the status quo with wit and humor.