We are The Watershed | Oyster & Pearl

Our sacred contract with nature – to work together as one – mirrors the oyster and pearl. Embedded in the grit of shallow waters, we filter the flow of the largest estuary in North America. Our watershed moment reveals pearls hidden within each of us embodying the Chesapeake Bay.

We are aquaculture. I feel the trickle of two woodland streams, filtering flow from the Appalachian highlands into the pond beside my studio through brackish waters of Queen's Creek, the Piankatank River, Hills Bay, and the Chesapeake – a sacred confluence with the Atlantic Ocean – the aquifer right under my feet.

Mirroring the landscape restores us. When I perched with my easel on a narrow strip of sand, between inland waterways on the Bay at Bethel Beach Sanctuary, I felt the watershed. Feet in the sand, head in the clouds – the healing colors of earth, sky, and water restored my creative heart – opening the flow to create this healing art portfolio.  

This same watershed moment carries into every landscape I paint. Right now that conversation spans Italy — the hill towns of Tuscany, the cliffs of the Amalfi Coast, the canals of Venice. More regions join this library as the confluence continues.