Inspired by the theme CAMP Artscape, we decided to create a nature scene similar to something you might see while camping: a trickling waterfall with stepping stones.

The bottle waterfall in daylight, spilling down a painted rock face

A National Aquarium poster reading "Welcome to Aquarium Falls! Explore our Western Maryland campground while you help visual artist Kasey Jones build a waterfall out of repurposed plastic water bottles"

The National Aquarium's welcome tent at the festival, visitors gathered at the table beneath the Aquarium Falls banner

Repurposing single-use plastic items, of course, I sourced over 3,000 plastic water bottles. Our friends from Zero Waste and the Perry County Recycling Center donated all the bottles to help us create a 40’ waterfall. Festival goers were encouraged to help us string up strands of water bottles.

All hands on deck with this installation, as much of the prep work for the bottles was done by our amazing volunteer team.

Volunteers washing and drilling bottles at the festival site

A National Aquarium volunteer holding up a bottle threaded onto the line, bagged bottles stacked behind her

A child's hands feeding a bottle onto the strand, cut bottles waiting in the grass

A girl sitting cross-legged in the grass threading a bottle onto the line, the bottle stream behind her

In addition to the waterfall and facade structure, we also painted a landscape mural of Swallow Falls, a waterfall located in central Maryland.

The facade itself was fabricated from sculpted chicken wire mesh and papier-mâché, then faux painted to look like the rock found in and around Swallow Falls.

The blank facade panels braced upright in the yard, one marked "Mural Side #1" in pencil

Looking through the braced frames, the walls forming a passage to walk through

A volunteer stapling chicken wire along the top of a grey-painted panel

Chicken wire pulled out from the painted panel, catching the light

The panels under a tarp, roughed in with black brushwork and wire hung ready

Newspaper papier-mâché built up over the wire into the shape of the rock face

A boulder under construction, papier-mâché over a chicken wire frame

The primed slabs stacked up under the tarp, still unpainted

The unpainted facade standing on the grass, the cave opening cut through it and boulders set around its foot

The first faux painting going on, greys and blacks worked into the layers

The painted rock face and boulders seen from the side

The faux painted wall around the cave opening, paint cans still at its foot

Close up of the finished rock face, its layers painted in greys and blues

Detail of the hand-painted rock surface in blues and greys

Moss laid into the seams between the finished boulders

The finished facade standing in the yard, boulders piled around the cave opening

The whole installation at the festival, the lit waterfall spilling into a stream of bottles with stepping stones across it and children playing

The installation in the rain, the lit falls and bottle stream running between the trees as visitors pass with umbrellas