12x12 Acrylic/ Canvas/ Glitter/ Resin/ Black Frame 

Midway at the Harbor

There had been a giant sign on a black tarp that read “Opening Fall 2018” hanging up on the ten million dollar glass building. It was our first visit to San Diego together to see if we could find a place to live. I would be working in that glass building - in the sun, in front of the ocean, in my fancy clothes, with great people. I would be a boss, and a surfer and views like this in the 75-degree sun would be normal. 

Lazily in that late summer sun that day we crossed Pacific Coast Highway and walked out to the harbor. The weather was perfect. It seemed like there were hundreds of sailboats on the endless glittering water that day. It felt like our whole lives were in front of us and those lives felt like glittering saltwater, and sunshine, and open-air, and success. Across from where we sat watching the water was the USS Midway Museum. I laughed with my Husband, saying I can’t believe I will never come here with my Dad. He would have loved it. I had worked as hard as I humanly could and everything I had asked for was given to me. I knew wherever he was, he was proud of me. 

It only took a few weeks of working in that building to never have the capacity to see or feel the magic of the Harbor, the weather, the sun - again. To this day every time I drive downtown, I feel quiet, and excited to leave.  But I’ll never forget the magic of the first time I was there. The sparkle, the blue, the gold of the sun. This painting is a portrait of that hope and illumination.