This piece was born from the grief of losing my father in a tragic accident at sea.

In the aftermath, when hope had thinned to almost nothing, something sacred unfolded, a moment I can only describe as a miracle. The ocean, which had taken him, returned him.

As I painted, I wasn’t thinking about form or subject. I was moving through grief. And somewhere in that process, a sea lion emerged, unplanned, unexpected, but deeply known.

This work holds both devastation and mercy. Loss, and the quiet, unexplainable ways we are sometimes met in it.

We miss you, Dad.