The Australian way of life and its icons, including the Aussie backyard, childhood memories and our unique native flora and fauna, are a constant source of subject matter for Whitsunday based artist, Margaret Burgess.

Margaret’s work can be intense and deeply personal, as she uses her art to question and resolve matters of concern to her, to other pieces, which are more whimsical, playful and relate to subject matter she finds beautiful or intriguing. Margaret describes herself as a compulsive maker and is constantly exploring new methods and techniques to use different materials for her jewellery and sculptures..

Her more recent works have had a focus on environmental issue and sustainability, they include pieces such as sculptures and jewellery created from marine plastic and debris, and sea glass collected from her Whitsunday backyard. To recycling broken china and glass as well as synthetic fabrics and vintage silver flatware.

Margaret founded the Plastic Boutique projects that have a creative artistic focus to engage community members and raise awareness of plastic pollution and the damage our it causes to our environment because of human ignorance and neglect.

“Our planet sustains us. We need to care about earth now or humanities future will be: no food, no clean air, just an uninhabitable rubbish dump. Please be mindful of planet earth. Reduce, recycle, reuse.”