SHE PORTAL: Honoring the Divine Sea

Last November, Julia C R Gray and I co-created She Portal: Honoring the Divine Sea at Once Upon a Frame Gallery in Solana Beach — an intimate space by the sea that became a temple for the feminine in both form and formlessness.

Julia’s SHE torsos embodied the feminine in physical presence — textured, grounded, and powerful in their curves. I, in turn, offered PORTAL PAINTINGS as openings into the formless feminine — vast, mysterious, and oceanic. Together, our works created a dialogue between vessel and current, body and spirit, earth and water.

The sea herself became collaborator. My portals were embedded with ocean materials — shells, pearls, and fragments of the shore — carrying the saltwater’s shimmer into each piece.

Julia unveiled her largest ocean sculpture yet, the Seed of Life She torso, a powerful invocation of creation and cyclical renewal. In conversation with this piece, I created a Seed of Life Portal, a painted gateway into infinite waters.

Guests entered the space like waves washing over sand — pausing, witnessing, remembering. They felt the femininity of the torsos, the openings of the portals, and the unspoken conversation between them.

She Portal was a reminder that the feminine is both anchored and uncontainable: a form we can touch, and a formless current we can only surrender to.

Looking back now, I still feel the resonance of that evening in Solana Beach. The gallery became a living portal — shimmering with shells, sea-prayers, and the presence of community gathered to honor the waters.

To everyone who joined us at Once Upon a Frame, thank you for witnessing and remembering with us. May the divine sea continue to guide your tides inward and outward, always.