My love for the ocean started when I was a kid. My Aunt Athalie took all 9 of us cousins to the tide pools in La Jolla and Ocean Beach, which were filled with shrimp, crabs, fish, anemone, octopus and more. I could have visited the tide pools every day forever! When I moved to Hawaii after high school, it was all about the ocean. I was in it, on it, or under it as often as possible. There is another universe within the ocean.
Like my love for the ocean, my love of art started as a kid; my grandmother painted with me. Creating art has been a constant in my life. I love using acrylic paints for the bright colors and versatility – I can use them like watercolors as well as layer them. My best tool is my ability to see the diversity of color in my subject, even if I sometimes take liberties with it.
When I put the two together, my love of the ocean and my love of art, the results turn into paintings of places I like to immerse myself in – whether on a beach, a beautiful mountain landscape, or swimming with ocean friends. These things bring me peace, and I hope my paintings will do the same for others. And if I could, I would embed the sounds of the sea or the wind into the artwork.
Mostly I am self-taught. I have taught art myself in Hawaii, Colorado, and California in public and private school systems and for summer art programs. For a while my love of the ocean compelled me to create art using beach trash in order to make others aware of the seriousness of ocean pollution. This opened up opportunities to collaborate with public school teachers and first and second grade students on large and small beach trash art projects, some of which are still publicly displayed.
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