California Spring

20 things I’m thankful for in the middle of this storm…⠀
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A life spent exploring this coast. ⠀
A brother that showed me the way to enjoy the ocean. ⠀
A mother with the patience of a saint to bundle into the VW and wait while we surfed the afternoon into evening. ⠀
A father that loved to drive… for hours… wherever we wanted to hunt for a wave. ⠀
A bike path through the park that led to a path that followed a river that flows into the sea at Seal Beach where a kid without a driver’s license could taste freedom and ice cream and square slices of pepperoni pizza. ⠀
An arrangement between working parents that saw us spending summer days – M-F from 9-5:30 – on the beach at the Surfside jetty. ⠀
Little shacks built for shade and locals that busted them up. ⠀
Eventually a license to drive and the keys to the VW opening up the coast from Santa Barbara to San Diego. ⠀
A retirement home in Atascadero where my grandparents moved and gave us a taste of the central coast and it’s marked difference from the regions below Point Conception. ⠀
A college education of sorts (major: art / minor: philosophy) at Humboldt State that opened up California’s deep northern coast to my wide eyes. ⠀
A community that embraced my art and everyone else’s too. ⠀
A great place to put some roots down. ⠀
Dozens if not hundreds of trips up and down the state’s coast over the years- at first to visit family, and then a gradual transition to my life’s work. ⠀
The California Impressionists of the 1920’s that made me realize that what I already loved was worth pursuing.⠀
A slow but steady chance to make a livelihood on this edge of the earth.⠀
All of you who’ve supported and encouraged this at-times questionable life path. ⠀
A van like a covered wagon to make a home wherever I go and provide a dry (if not always warm) shelter from California’s storms. ⠀
Books to read while waiting out the worst of storms.⠀
California’s beauty in the middle of a raging storm on the Big Sur coast back in 2010 that saw me hopping out at every break in the rain to soak it all in and make notes for this and many other paintings.⠀
Oh, and poppies, also the poppies.