Year of the Straw by Sonia Romero

Medium: Serigraph/Silkscreen

Colors: 11, Hand Pulled

Paper: Coventry Rag

Signed and Numbered Edition: 40

Printed at Self Help Graphics

Date: 2019

Size: 30 x 22 inches

I conceived this artwork in 2018 when social media and the news exposed me to a campaign calling for the ban of plastic straws, the mascot of single-use plastics. Even though I found the effort comical, as it bans straws while ignoring plastic lids and cups, the campaign was also effective as it changed my own habits regarding plastic waste. 

The baby in the print is a portrait of my own son Sky. He is lying in a nest of discarded straws, a trash island made of our past generation’s beverages, floating in the middle of the ocean in a plastic diaper.

Year of the Straw is part of my ‘Nest’ series, a spin-off of the ‘Pile’ series which depicts heaps of objects that are a consequence of our consumer culture. 

This print is part of the Self Help Graphics Inagural Print Summit Portfolio