60" x 24"
Acrylic on Canvas
Echoes of the Real
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A California sunset—framed by the pier—casts a sweeping lens flare across the composition, flooding the scene with a theatrical glow.
In the foreground, the rolling waves create a sort of calmness…the foam curls like calligraphy across the ocean’s surface. Weathered pilings jut upward from the water, the solemn remnants of an old pier…while to the left stands the iconic hotel on Capitola’s shore, rendered with a whimsical touch. Colorful beach umbrellas and a pair of chairs line the sand, offering front-row seating to a magical, ever-shifting view at the edge of fantasy.
Stretching outward into the sea is the old Capitola Wharf, its eerie restaurant and bait shop perched above the waves. Though it once stood as a beloved landmark, the pier no longer exists, destroyed by severe storms in 2023—here it endures as a ghostly tribute.
Above this shoreline, a surreal wooden track arcs through the sky, carrying an old steam train that blends eras and realities, while fusing vintage design with a modern edge. The result is otherworldly—a machine both nostalgic and futuristic—barreling forward as if racing into another dimension.
Across the horizon, an intense cloudscape surges with energy—an incredible playground for one’s imagination. Lightning storms crackle on the far right, scorching the distance in a brilliant display of nature’s power.
Altogether, the painting captures a threshold between calm and chaos, memory and imagination, waking life and dream. It is a vision of motion and transformation, where human structures merge with elemental forces, and reality bends into a cinematic daydream—an exhilarating, mysterious journey poised on the very edge of the dream.
Tags: Capitola, West Coast, Manifest, Transformation, Perserverance, Sunset, Steam Train
On the Edge of a Dream is what I call a journey piece—one that has traveled with me through many chapters of my life before finally finding its completion. I first began the painting in 2015 while live painting at an art and wine festival in Capitola, California. At the time, I was exhibiting in a gallery on Capitola Avenue owned by my friend Michael. The vision for this piece struck me during that trip, and though my skills were not yet at the level to fully capture it, I began the work with confidence, inspired by the event and the creative spirit of the place.
From there, the painting became a companion on a long, winding road. I carried it with me between Tahoe, Reno, San Diego, Oakland, Santa Barbara, and eventually Morro Bay, where it sat unfinished during a more nomadic season of my life. For years it remained among a stack of “lost paintings” in a mobile home a mile from the beach, as I navigated financial struggles, constant moves, and an unsettled path. In 2018, after finally regaining my footing in Reno, I drove back to the coast to rescue that abandoned stack of art and returned it to my reestablished studio at The Generator. I was fortunate to complete a few of those lost works there, but On the Edge of a Dream still resisted its finish.
After three years in Reno, I moved to Colorado, where I endured both some of my darkest years and some of my most profound healing. During that time, I revisited this painting alongside another long-abandoned work, The Heart and the Hidden Sun, which I was able to complete before my time in Colorado ended. Bit by bit, I added to On the Edge of a Dream, though it continued to wait patiently for the time, focus, and presence it truly required.
That moment didn’t arrive until 2025, after I made the decision to return fully to my art career with no more distractions—to save myself and my creative path by committing completely to it. With a renewed sense of purpose, I finally gave this painting the attention and love it deserved. And in a beautiful stroke of synchronicity, just as I was nearing completion, a friend who had been there the very day I began the piece in Capitola saw it online and purchased it—closing the circle of its long journey. Now it can continue its life in the world, much like a child who is raised and then released to follow their own destiny.
For me, On the Edge of a Dream is an ode to perseverance, resilience, and never giving up. It holds within it a decade of my story—struggles, transformations, and the eventual return to the path I was always meant to walk. It is also a reminder of life’s deepest trials, of how in our darkest hours it can feel impossible to rise again—when everything goes blank and the future you once imagined disappears. Yet even then, if we choose to keep moving, even in the smallest of steps, we begin to uncover a hidden strength. To emerge from such depths is profoundly powerful—proof that even in the heaviest shadows, the will to continue can guide us back into the light.
