I’ve had this shot in my head for a while now so when we finally got to Olympic National Park, I was ready for it. I knew from my research there were beach rocks to be found in all sizes, shapes and colors along the windswept rocky coast of the Pacific Northwest. What I didn’t realize was the colorful ones were few and far between, hidden by centuries’ worth of smooth, rounded gray stones.

So I did what any sane person would do when presented with a sea of rocks in various shades of gray…I walked up and down Rialto Beach early one morning looking for individual colorful rocks, collecting each one that caught my eye. Definitely didn’t draw any attention to myself among the tidepoolers.

When I felt like i had a good representation, I started layering them together. A little while later and after a splash of water, voila! Afterwards, I spread them around for others to find and collect for their own photo if they wanted. (But not to take as it’s illegal to remove anything from a national park, fyi.) As an artist, what we see in our head often isn’t always what it becomes, but sometimes it does and after the excitement of translating, along comes a big sigh and joy for making it happen. And continuing to make it happen again.

Each day we get to choose when we see what’s around us: Work with what we’re given, or go off and create something completely different. Not necessarily better nor worse. Just different.

What’s in your head today you can creatively translate?

Find this and more from Olympic National Park.