12x12 Resin coated
There is no joy like screaming “DOLPHINS” as they swim past. From the shore, at first, I never know if it’s a bird or a dorsal fin. There’s this excitement that is almost indescribable upon realizing they are right there, it’s wild dolphins, and I’m seeing it. A few times a week I go swimming on Coronado Beach. I am very proud of how far out we swim. On a specific day I was thinking of when I made this painting, my husband Kevin and I had just taken a 6 pm yoga class. The beach is right next to the studio. The sun was nearly set - electric pink as we got into the water and swam out. We swam out like we always do. Suddenly there were two dolphins right there with us. One of them jumped three feet from me, towards me. It was so close to me that it immediately made my blood run cold. To see the texture of her skin, the curve of her nose. I just immediately thought she was a shark because of the gray skin. But she wasn’t. She was a dolphin that came to say hi three feet away from me.
The ocean is the largest spirit on this planet. All I ever wanted was to know her. To know what the ocean was like on a stormy day. To know how to read the tides. To know how it feels to dive in a wave. To know what it is like three feet from a dolphin. Sometimes, some of the best gifts of my life were something that I was terrified of at first until I reframed the situation for the vision of how fortunate I was to have it. This painting is a portrait of that reframing, the waking up to the light, the magic of the spirit, and how it is always so much better than I can imagine.