During my first Summer exhibiting my work at the Sawdust Festival I had the pleasure of building my own booth with the help of my good friend who is a furniture designer and master woodworker in San Diego, CA. I assisted him to create my booth to be reusable for many years. Upon completion sitting in this little space I began to feel like I was on my very own tiny little boat. This inspired me to decorate my booth in a nautical theme. I went to a store in Newport Beach, CA named Minnies Yacht Surplus and was able to find all kinds of antique decorations perfect for my theme. I stumbled into a room there that was full of all kinds of used nautical charts. I was inspired and excited to do a painting using them and hung it in my booth alongside my other creations. 

 

Shortly after the show began a Woman stopped by my booth and was a huge blessing in the trajectory of my art. She was the librarian a LCAD an art college here in town and someone had donated them a stack of old used nautical charts and insisted that I buy them.The next day I arrived at the college and purchased the entire stack. that was it, I had my niche and began doing a series using them as backgrounds for my artwork. I've been painting on them ever since and am grateful for that moment every day. This would be my very own little corner of the art world to pursue and pour all of my love and devotion into.