Featured Artist Francesca Busca

Francesca Busca creates mosaics from discarded materials, turning environmental concern into striking visual storytelling. View more of her portfolio on her website.

 

 

I have always lived through art. As a child I sold drawings on the street, collected candle wax from churches to melt into new shapes, and drew medieval scenes for village fairs. Even when I later became a city solicitor, I found myself frantically modelling clay between legal briefs. Art has always been my way of understanding the world—but it took me years to allow it to become my life.

 

 

My eco‑artivism emerged from a combination of instinct, upbringing, and urgency. I grew up in an eco‑conscious household. Over time I became increasingly unable to ignore the disconnect between the life I was leading and my values.

 

 

In 2016, I finally surrendered to my nature and shifted fully into art. I later graduated with distinction in Mosaic and Fine Arts from the London School of Mosaic. My practice has since evolved into a fusion of material experimentation, environmental activism, and inspirational talks and collaborations. It is aimed at fostering empathy and systemic change.

 

 

I work exclusively with discarded materials—what I call my trashure. Everything I create is made from waste: ghost gear recovered through Project One Wave missions, household refuse donated by communities, marine debris, office waste, and the endless stream of synthetic fragments that define our age. I treat waste as a true substitute for prime material, reworked into tiles—every fragment a pioneering step toward mosaic innovation and systemic change.

 

 

My work aims to spark empathy for all life forms and to challenge the anthropocentric mindset that has brought us to ecological collapse. I want viewers to feel the tension between beauty and damage, between what we treasure and our disconnection from our ecosystem and the common good. My works are invitations to reconnect—with nature, with responsibility, and with each other.

 

 

Collaboration is central to my practice. I work with scientists, institutions, environmental organisations, and communities. I founded Payment in Kind(ness)®, an alternative economic model where eco‑friendly actions replace money, and ArtforTrash®, where I create artworks from clients’ own waste—particularly impactful in corporate and institutional settings.

 

 

I also founded GREENy bastARTs, an international eco‑artivist collective bridging environmental understanding and transformative action. My collaborations include ISMAR (Institute of Marine Sciences, Venice, where I bridge science and the public), Birmingham Business School (collaborating on finding a way to re‑quantify our system based on the common good rather than profit), and Project One Wave (led by CPWF UK—a network of resources and people from all sectors tackling ocean health and marine plastic pollution).

 

 

Across all my projects, I strive to live the same principles I embed in my art: veganism, low‑impact living, renewable energy, second‑hand clothing, and a commitment to behavioural change. My practice is a Gesamtkunstwerk—not just an artistic approach, but a way of being.

 

 

Through my work, I hope to show that waste is not an ending but a beginning. Art should be a catalyst for collective ecological repair.

 

Francesca Busca invites you to follow on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn, as well Instagram accounts for her art, Greeny bastArts and ArtforTrash.

 

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