I am a junior at Stevenson living in Monterey. I was born and raised in Santa Cruz, where I was constantly playing outside and in the water. The ocean and sunshine were my home. Now that I’m getting older, I have an intense appreciation and nostalgia for the beauty of our Mother Earth. My mom, friends, animals, music, and drives along the coast or under the stars sustain me. This sunset by Bird Rock blew me away. It was my most recent inspiration when it came time to finally put paintbrush to canvas. My loftiest attempt and biggest struggle with this piece were trying to capture some replication of the intimacy of that sunset: the sun and sky and ocean in that moment. I got to witness it.