Three months in a beach town

2024,18x12” gouache and acrylics on paper.

I made this piece after spending three months living in a small beach town in the middle of nowhere. The town has a nickname, Hibiscus City. Hibiscus is my favorite flower because it reminds me of SpongeBob. Hibiscus grew everywhere in my hometown of Mumbai, and it is only fitting that I ended up in this small Florida beach town named after the flower.

In this small beach town, I wake up every morning and drive over a bridge to an island where I sit on the beach. I lie under the sun, and when my skin begins to sweat, I walk into the ocean. Sometimes the ocean is angry, sometimes it’s calm. When it’s calm, I stand on my tiptoes and bounce with the waves. I see stingrays jump and get seaweed caught in my feet. If I am lucky, I see the fin of a dolphin. This is my first-ever work that I created with the intention of making prints. I created it after spending three months in a small beach town.