16x20 resin coated 

In the 1990s my Grandma lived in Florida by the beach. She had California raisin everything, a cockatiel named Baby, a hot tub (which I remember as big enough for me to swim laps in), and every kind of fruit tree.  In my mind, it will always be 1991 in Florida. I remember vividly being hysterical because all I wanted to do was swim in the ocean and we had to go to a Mets game (I was 7)

When we finally got to the water I remember there being dozens of otters across the street in a wooded area. They really like to put on a show. It was the first time I had ever seen one. I swore I’d have an otter one day (dachshunds are very close to being otters.) When we got to the water it was windy and cloudy. There was a shark watch and 5-foot waves. My grandfather went in and searched for giant shells for us anyway, while my grandmother screamed at him from the sand 😆. He gave me a huge abalone shell he had found about the size of my head. It was magical. The sand was covered in thousands of neon things that I thought were sandwich bags, but they were jellyfish.

That was the first time I ever saw an ocean. This painting is an illumination of that memory. Like if you could turn humidity into a color pallet this, to me, is it.