Turning Trash into Treasure on the Walnut Creek Greenway

This new public art installation by Patrizia Ferreira is made from salvaged plastic bags that have been transformed into a beautiful canopy
by Lily Kane | photography by Jude McDonald

Draped between trees at the Walnut Creek Wetland Center, a colorful new installation flutters delicately in the breeze. The artwork, which at first glance looks to be adorned with rosettes, is cloth-like and lacy, catching light from the sun’s rays. But take a look closer and you’ll see it’s made entirely of plastic bags.

The piece, titled Air Chrysalis, is the work ofRaleigh-based fiber artist Patrizia Ferreira. She was inspired to create the artwork after attending a program at the wetland center in 2023, where she learned about the history of Walnut Creek. The creek, which is in a historically Black neighborhood, was used as a dumping ground for nearly 70 years. Parishioners of the nearby St. Ambrose Episcopal Church began efforts to clean up the watershed in the 1990s. Others joined in and the community’s efforts grew, leading to the creation of the park as it exists today: 58 acres of preserved wetlands and a nature education center.

That history stayed with Ferreira. “There’s so much history and memories and all these things,” she says. “I’ve been very drawn to the stories in this place.”

In 2025, Ferreira submitted the concept for the project to the City of Raleigh’s SEEK program, which supports experimental public art projects in the city. After her application was selected, she launched a series of community workshops where she taught attendees how to turn plastic bags into pieces of rope, then shape them into flowers. Ferreira estimates that more than 100 volunteers contributed to the work. “It’s kind of poetic, because each of these flowers is a person,” she says.

Jenn Hales, the public art coordinator for the City of Raleigh, was the project manager for Air Chrysalis. She says that while most SEEK projects involve the community in some way, Ferreira “went above and beyond” with the number of workshops she hosted. In addition to traditional workshops for adults, Ferreira hosted a joint workshop with Artspace, a collaboration with Arts Access — a nonprofit that supports people with disabilities — and a workshop for youth. “I got a full range of ages and people from all walks of life,” Ferreira says.

The finished product, which was installed in March, is made from 415 plastic bags, which Ferreira stitched together by hand. Nearly 7 feet wide and 20 feet long, it hangs high over the entrance to Walnut Creek Trail.

Ferreira says she hopes that Air Chrysalis evokes a sense of hope and wonder, even as it speaks to environmental concerns of pollution and consumerism.

“When you think of a chrysalis, you think of the birth of a butterfly. It’s something ephemeral,” she says. “I’m really drawn to that transformation — turning something discarded into something meaningful.”