Collection: Tide Keepers

Art Inspiring Ocean Stewardship

Tide Keepers is a mixed-media marine art series created from hand-cut, repurposed papers layered with translucent acrylic glazes. Through ocean life, kelp forests, tide pools, and coastal ecosystems, the work uses beauty and wonder to invite deeper connection, curiosity, and stewardship.

A Tide Keepers ocean-literacy initiative exploring California kelp forests as living systems essential to biodiversity, coastal resilience, and our shared future.

Guardians of the Kelp Forest

Tide Keepers: Guardians of the Kelp Forest brings the hidden world of California’s kelp forests into public view through mixed-media art. Using hand-cut, repurposed materials layered with paint, the work transforms discarded fragments into vibrant marine life—mirroring the delicate balance between human impact and ocean resilience.

California’s kelp forests are extraordinary living systems, supporting biodiversity while also playing an important role in coastal ecosystems and carbon capture. Through art, visual storytelling, field observation, and accessible educational content, Guardians of the Kelp Forest invites viewers to see these underwater environments not as distant landscapes, but as ecosystems connected to our shared future.

By bridging art and science, the project uses beauty and wonder as an entry point to ocean literacy—encouraging curiosity, emotional connection, and informed stewardship.

Tide Keepers: Guardians of the Kelp Forest is a BLUE THREAD project selected for inclusion on the UNESCO Ocean Literacy Portal.

From Biodiversity to the Kelp Forest

The project grew from my exploration of biodiversity and interconnected marine ecosystems in Diversity. That work led me deeper into California’s kelp forests—complex underwater communities where countless species depend upon one another for shelter, food, and survival.