Sophia is an emerging Gold Coast artist working with sustainable, bio-degradable materials to respond to some of the significant global issues of our time. Her art is a reaction to our impacts on our natural environment, health, and sustainability. 

“As a visual artist, my art practice mainly responds to the current environmental issues through creating temporal sculptures and installation artworks from bio-based and organic materials,” Sophia described. 

In other words, her artworks are made of coffee grinds, avocado skins and citrus peels.

Sophia is self-taught in her processes to make the materials she uses. She works with a protein collagen-based material and food waste to form the sustainable, biodegradable materials used in her art.

“Majority of my works are strongly linked to given locations, local landscapes, environments and ecological sites and people,” Sophia said. 

“My art employs waste on a personal scale and local commercial scale, salvaging organic bio-products and food scraps such as coffee grinds, avocado skins, egg shells and citrus peels. Materials that are usually discarded can be reclaimed to make a multitude of aesthetic and functional items.”

Sophia started experimenting and working with organic waste four years ago. As a coffee lover, coffee grinds were an obvious choice emphasising the quantities we consume and the number of resources and labour it takes to make these cups of coffee. Bi-products and food scraps like this became the deliberate choice to highlight in her artworks.

“During my time at university, I became increasingly concerned about the amount of rubbish produced by the arts sector,” Sophia described. 

“Although initially, much of my artwork had been made using recycled materials such as paper and cardboard, I felt the need to push these sustainable aspects further. 

“I began researching bioplastic and ‘at home’ approaches to material and circular design.  As my experiments began to expand, I fell in love with the instinct process of making, collecting and designing these bio-based materials.” 

The process of preparing her materials is quite simple. It involves washing the organic waste to remove bacteria, dehydrating the fibrous matter and grinding it into a powder. This is then added to a protein collagen base. Many of Sophia’s artworks are linked to the location by using the organic waste products from the local venue or project.

Sophia organises What We Consider Waste workshops on the Gold Coast to teach the methods of turning organic material into art. Follow her social media @sophialfranks for future dates.