I have been making art using memories and feelings from dreams and my life and childhood. Turtles, fish and other natural images continue to inspire me. As a 12 year old I use to wade into a waist deep swamp pond near my home in St. Louis to collect newts, frog eggs, glass larvae and fairy shrimps and to study the life there. That pond has since been drained to be part of a housing development. This image is made from acrylic crackle paste, paint, gels and glazes and acrylic fish appliqués made from a stencil. The blue/gray transparent acrylic bloom creates a shape reminiscent of microbial and planktonic life in lakes and oceans as well as a feeling of moonrise. The crackle reminds me of dried lakebeds and ocean floors from long ago and the memories they must contain of all that lived there. I have always felt at one with nature and the universe when swimming in oceans and lakes and want to share my feelings in these images.