“The Birthday Gift”

 2026

Mixed Media, Hand-painted Mexican Nicho Shadow Box 

5.25" x 5.5 x 1 inches

Approximately Ten Hours Later - Art Price: $111.00 + Processing Fee: $4.36 = Total: $115.36

Created from a birthday UFO sighting experience shared on the Ventura County coast, The Birthday Gift commemorates an unexpected convergence of the natural and the anomalous. While camping beside the ocean, the artist and her husband spent the day accompanied by a playful pod of dolphins. In a fleeting moment, a brilliant metallic orb appeared above a mother dolphin and her calf, mirroring their movements as they leapt through the waves below. Hovering exclusively above the pair before suddenly vanishing toward the horizon, the luminous visitor transformed an ordinary celebration into something altogether more mysterious. Presented as a miniature Mexican nicho, the work honors the sense of wonder inspired by encounters that resist explanation and feel, perhaps, like gifts.