From Waste to Wonder: Francesca Busca’s Eco-Artivist Vision

Artist, eco-artivist, and founder of multiple pioneering initiatives including GREENy bastARTs, Visual Art Open 2025 Winner Francesca Busca has built a practice that transforms waste into powerful acts of meaning. Renowned for pioneering the technique of waste mosaic, Busca creates works entirely from discarded materials she calls her ‘trashure’, balancing beauty with protest and hope with urgency. Her work speaks to a lifelong tension between optimism and surrender, innovation and loss, and a deep belief in art’s capacity to shift perspectives and inspire systemic change. Rooted in an unconventional journey spanning law, design, education, and activism, her practice invites audiences to reimagine rubbish not as an endpoint, but as a beginning.

Creative Background and Evolution

Busca has always practised art as a way of life. From selling drawings on the street and collecting candle wax from churches to re-melt as a child, to drawing medieval scenes for fairs as a teenager, and frantically modelling clay while working as a solicitor, art has been a constant presence. Despite this, she initially chose to study and practise law in Padua, London, Paris, and New York, believing that art was ‘too enjoyable to be a job’.

After having children, and a striking visit to the mosaics of Aquileia in Italy, she finally gave in to what she describes as her true nature. Busca graduated with distinction in Mosaic and Fine Arts from the London School of Mosaic in 2019, where she later lectured between 2021 and 2022.  Embracing unconventional paths and pioneering endeavours has been a recurring theme in her career path, spanning roles from interior designer to in-house legal, working alongside former CIA and SAS figures, from City solicitor to mosaicist and lecturer.

Despite achieving success, I often felt like I was inhabiting someone else’s shoes.

Her eco-artivism emerged naturally from both her artistic instincts and an environmentally conscious upbringing. Since 2017, she has created artwork entirely from waste, which she refers to as her ‘trashure’. In doing so, she pioneered waste mosaic as a distinct technique and style, becoming well recognised within the mosaic world for this innovation. Alongside her studio practice, she founded initiatives such as Payment in Kindness, which accepts eco-friendly actions as payment, and ArtforTrash, which transforms clients’ waste into artworks.

Most recently, Busca founded , an international eco-activist collective that aims to bridge environmental understanding and transformative action across Europe. The collective is currently planning a major two-week eco-artivist exhibition for June 2026, addressing six environmental urgencies through art, science, community engagement, and activism.

It is the culmination of everything I believe about art’s power to create cross-sectoral networks and inspire meaningful change.

Following a year-long collaboration that included a residency during the Venice Boat Show in 2024, she is now on a long-term collaboration retainer with the Institute of Marine Sciences in Venice, and is also embarking on an upcoming long-term collaboration with

the London Transport Museum.

Themes and Intentions

Busca’s work sits in a space between optimism and surrender, rooted in a belief in a future shaped by resourceful innovation and systemic rethinking. This tension is made visible in her practice. For Francesca, this hope is made visible through her work.

Art is meaningful rather than beautiful, but the more beautiful the artwork, the clearer the message. Every tessera I create protests against our disposable lifestyle, providing a new perspective on rubbish and embodying hope. In my world, rubbish gains new value, transforming from waste to wonder.

Busca wants viewers to recognise the inherent beauty and potential in discarded materials, and to leave questioning their own relationship with consumption and waste.

Central to her practice is the desire to bridge science and the public, helping audiences empathise with all forms of life and grasp the urgency of systemic change. Her work calls for a shift away from anthropocentric thinking towards an understanding of the common good of the entire ecosystem.

At the heart of this is her continued development of waste mosaic, using trashure as a true prime material rather than assemblage for its own sake. Busca is frequently invited to speak about this approach, which has become well established within the mosaic world.

She sees art as a network-building force, capable of connecting disparate parts of society and enabling collective efforts towards planetary health.

Art has the power to create a network that spans all facets of society, enabling efficient collective efforts towards planetary health. Each piece is both a beacon of hope and an invitation to witness the metamorphosis from refuse to resource.

The Making of Ping (The Ping of a Pin on a Pebble in the Pond)

The Visual Art Open-winning work, Ping (The Ping of a Pin on a Pebble in the Pond), emerged from a convergence of influences. During her residency with Insights of an Eco Artist, Busca found herself drawn to water as a shared theme among the participating artists. This built on her previous year-long collaboration and residency with the Institute of Marine Sciences in Venice, where she spent two weeks during the 2024 Venice Boat Show.

Through her activism, she reached a stark realisation: the oceans are among the most precious resources on the planet, essential to the entire ecosystem and human survival. Ping forms part of her Pitter-Patters series, which explores the relationship between humans and water. The work visually translates the sound and vibrations created by a metal object falling onto a hard surface underwater, such as a pin dropped into a pool or a pebble into a pond. Made entirely from hundreds of used hairdresser’s foils, the piece appeals to shared sensory experiences, inviting empathy for parts of the ecosystem that often remain abstract or unseen.

Exhibiting at the VAO Finalists Exhibition

Exhibiting at the Visual Art Open Finalists Exhibition was, for Busca, deeply rewarding.

Being part of such a prestigious showcase alongside talented artists from around the world, in the stunning Minster Building with its magnificent 21-metre glass-topped atrium, was truly special. The natural light pouring through created the perfect atmosphere to showcase work that carries such important environmental messages. It was wonderful to see how visitors engaged with the pieces and to be part of conversations about art, education, and sustainability.

Winning the Art Educator award, she says, represents a significant moment for eco-artivism. It challenges entrenched biases against waste as a primary material and against what she terms ‘meaningful imperfection’. She deliberately leaves traces that signal the work’s origins in waste, and sees this transparency as essential. Sustainability, in her view, should be understood as making the world better through practice, not worse, and recognised as a strength rather than a compromise. The recognition from VAO affirms that waste can occupy a legitimate place within fine art, pushing against conventional hierarchies of material value.

Lessons From the Journey

Looking back, the most significant lesson for Busca has been the importance of pursuing what feels most authentic rather than what appears easiest or most socially sanctioned. For years, she followed a conventional legal career because she believed art could not be a profession. Although she achieved success, the sense of inhabiting someone else’s life persisted. Embracing her artistic calling marked a profound shift. The transition from City solicitor to eco-artivist was not easy, requiring risk and sacrifice, but it was the first

time her path felt fully her own. In her own words:

Do what you love the most, not what is easier or considered the right path to take

Advice for Emerging Artists

For artists at the beginning of their careers, Busca stresses the importance of listening widely while protecting one’s own voice.

Listen to all different voices, but keep your own. When you are starting out, you will receive endless advice, opinions, and suggestions about what your art should be, which direction to take, what is commercially viable. It is important to stay open and learn from others’ experiences, but never lose sight of your unique vision and voice. What makes your work distinctive is precisely what makes it yours. The art world has room for many voices - make sure yours remains authentic to who you are and what you believe in.

She also emphasises the value of finding artistic ‘soulmates’ – peers who truly understand one’s vision and offer mutual support. These relationships, she believes, amplify voices and sustain artists through challenges. Equally, she encourages openness to everyone encountered along the way. Unexpected conversations often lead to meaningful collaborations, and word-of-mouth remains crucial. Every interaction holds potential, whether with a future collaborator, collector, or advocate.

Defining Success

For Busca, artistic success lies in developing a new technique that communicates clearly and meaningfully with the wider community. It is about recognisability, resonance, and the creation of cross-sector networks that enable real-world change. Sales and representation matter less than whether the work sparks dialogue, shifts perspectives, and inspires action.

She measures success through moments of connection: when viewers question their relationship with waste, when schools invite her to run eco-awareness projects, when scientists and institutions seek collaboration. The informal networks that collect and contribute to her trashure, from neighbours to high-end showrooms, also represent a meaningful form of success. Being recognised in the street and associated with her work signals to her that the message has landed. For Busca, art is a living conversation, and success is when that conversation extends beyond the art world into society at large.

Advice to VAO Applicants

To artists considering applying to the Visual Art Open 2026, Busca describes the experience as a small step with the potential for a major shift in practice. Beyond the £10,000 prize fund and prestigious exhibition opportunities, she values the sense of belonging to a diverse, forward-thinking community. She highlights the Art Educator category in particular, which acknowledges the vital role educators play while maintaining active practices.

 It is about being part of a diverse, visionary community that celebrates artists at all career stages. The Art Educator category, in particular, recognises the vital role educators play in nurturing creativity whilst maintaining an active artistic practice. Winning this award has filled me with joy and hope, proving that art and sustainability can indeed go hand in hand and lose none of their value, but rather enhance reciprocal brilliance. Whether you are an emerging artist or established in your practice, Visual Art Open provides incredible visibility, professional support, and validation for the work you are doing.

Winning the award reaffirmed her belief that art and sustainability can coexist without diminishing one another, instead enhancing their shared impact. Whether emerging or established, she believes Visual Art Open offers visibility, validation, and meaningful professional support, and encourages artists not to hesitate in applying.

Where to Find Francesca Busca's Work

Busca’s work can be seen in permanent installations across London, Stirling, Southampton, and Venice, as well as at her studio in Ealing.

• Website: www.francescabusca.art

• Instagram: @francesca_busca

• Updates on upcoming eco-artivist events can be found through her newsletter

• Learn more about GREENy bastARTs Collective, with a major public event planned for June 2026 during London Climate Action Week.