My earliest exposure to the ocean, if the water of Long Island Sound can be called ocean, probably came before I was five. I see my young self hand in hand with Grandpa Chase, early evening, summer, walking along a sea wall beside Knollwood Beach in Connecticut, sand and tidal waters to one side, weathered beach cottages, garden reflecting balls, and flagpoles to the other. Pure delight.
When I was ages seven, eight, nine, and ten, my family rented a plainspoken cottage at Old Kelsey Point in Westbrook, Connecticut. Those summer weeks by the sea established in me a lifelong set point of proximity to the ocean.
For many years, living just minutes from the ocean as we have for decades, Dave and I have made it our practice to head out for picnics in settings beside the water every single evening from mid-June through mid-September. Even when we were both working to the fullest extent at our respective jobs, our internal mindset was that we owned and lived in a cottage by the sea all summer every summer. That mindset endures! So, when you look at my journal page below, please know that that peach-colored cottage with salty window panes is ‘our‘ cottage, those clothes drying in the onshore breeze are ‘our’ clothes, that picket fence needing a fresh coat of paint is ‘our’ picket fence.
8 x 8″; watercolor, acrylic gesso, water-soluble pencil, and water-soluble pastel
on journal page
2024
dottyseiter: now playing 
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