“How Long Have You Been Cradled, Waiting To Be Found?”

While training for sensorimotor art therapy in Apollo Bay, Australia, we explored the nearby tide pools of Morengo Bay. I spent hours walking the otherworldly rock structures and crouching to study the hundreds of tiny creatures that lay inside the small crevices. In the middle of a sand-filled hole, I spied the tiniest arc of dots on the surface of the sand. The excitement of realization was almost too much to bear as I gently nudged into the sand to reveal a mother-of-pearl shell that was face-down, perfectly camouflaged by the sand that covered its rough outer covering. No more than two inches in length, this find of a lifetime radiated out the most profound sense of healing that I could imagine. I wondered how long it had been cradled in that tiny crevice and pondered the gift of my discovering it. May we all be so cherished as this shell!

This sculptural work is a combination of well over a hundred hours of work utilizing all methods of working with encaustic— my macro photography became the foundation, was layered with wax and carved, sculpted, and pigmented with both powdered pastels and encaustic paint to create a dynamic flow between the fingers, shell, and encaustic-painted background of the tide pools and bay. Incorporating found wood from the United States was wired into the panel to bring further cohesion as this piece takes on new life here.