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I am a sucker for shells. And rocks. And leaves. Basically all of the fascinating details one comes across in nature... I’ve been to this beach in Puerto Penasco, Mexico multiple times and it never fails to amaze me how the ocean continues to produce shells with every tide. 

 

Shouldn’t the ocean have run out by now?? 

I've always been drawn to the many perfect shells. Of course we’ve hauled some home. 

And also turned them into art here at the beach (here's the view from Catherine & Grant's condo.)

(Farrell shudders just a little when we head out for a walk and I ask if he minds tucking a grocery sack into his pocket. Ahhh, he's a good assistant.) 

Recently, I saw a land artist, Justin Bateman on Instagram. So cool. I loved how he looked down at the pebbles on the ground and created art using the rocks like strokes of paint. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CxVj9TwtvfA/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Taking inspiration from that I went along the beach with new eyes. I didn’t look for the whole shells. I was looking for colors. To start, I was only looking for pinks and mauves. 

I gathered my little collection in the sand and decided I wanted to treat it like a painter's pallete, so I set off to look for oranges and yellows. And then I also picked up browns, grays, reds, whites, creams… 

I would be walking along, picking up shells, too many to hold so I would use my beach coverup like a kangaroo pocket to hold the shells. Until it started to get heavy on my neck. Then I would look up and realize I had walked really far away... Here's a pic Farrell took of me out collecting. (I'm that spec of blue in the very center.)

I had the shells all lined up by color. Farrell was having a lovely time reading his book in the shade of our cabana. He asked me what I was doing? Was I was organizing? Ha! He was right! I do love to organize!

Ah. I’m remembering that my mom said I didn’t really play with toys the same way other kids would. Instead I lined things up by shapes and colors: The Fisher Price camper truck in the lead, followed by the little people, colored blocks, small animals...

Back to Farrell’s question: I was creating a painters pallete. As though if I wanted to paint a portrait of a person with my dabs of paint in the form of shells, I could. 

And then I found a sea urchin skeleton...

And that, obviously, was an eye... and thus, my pallete morphed into a large, beautiful fish. :)

 

I need to take a walk down to the beach and see if it's still there.