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Who was she before she began to glisten in a diamond studded sky?

This is Soli, the Caribbean’s radiant treasure.

Eduardo lounged on his yacht’s deck and polished off a bottle of reposado. Condemning a young boy with a fatal diagnosis gnawed at him. Despite it being part of his profession, leaving a single mother with no one to care for her called for top-shelf tequila. Despite his imperious essence, Eduardo harbored genuine empathy for his patients.

Soli, his wife, bore the brunt of his turbulent emotions—she was his refuge from a tempest that raged in his soul.

He loved too deeply, he would tell her. His job, too demanding.

He proposed to her with a five-carat sapphire. The daughter of a Mexican senator, a scholar in her own right, deserved the best. "Diamonds," he said, "have lost their allure. This sapphire… this is a treasure." He gestured to the deep blue stone, "This echoes the waters you traverse with me. With this stone, forever you’ll be mine."

After a savage beating, Eduardo’s deck hand consoled Soli. "We can go back to Mahuhual. You don’t have to take this." The impending storm provided a perfect excuse to return to land.

“You shouldn’t even be talking to me.” Soli recoiled as the deck hand reached for her hand. Though she batted it away, through tequila soaked lenses, Eduardo told himself his own story.

Waves began to rise and the mainsail flapped furiously in the tempestuous wind.

As the sea grew restless, so did Eduardo's temper. He cornered Soli, gripped her wrist and pinned her to the starboard.

The hull rose and fell, clapped the water and the sea spray drenched her face.

His rage, palpable… “You think you’re that special?” The heat from his breath stung her face. “You think that you can sleep around with my deck hand and expect me to still want you?” He pressed his hand against her chest and slid it toward her clavicle.

In a desperate gasp, Soli tried to pry his fingers from her throat. As he released his hold his palm met her cheek in a brutal slap, forcing her body to the deck. Motionless, she laid, sprawled on the ground as he moved apace to the console, retrieving his 9mm.

Returning, he loomed over her, his irritation discernable.

With disdain, he spat upon her and tore the sapphire from her finger and hurled it into a black abyss. Culminated in a chilling threat, he pressed the gun to her temple. She cast her eyes upward, drinking in the diamond-studded sky for one final moment. As he readied his grip to fire, a whispered thought echoed through her mind: “You're a treasure."

…and in a new form, in a new light, she was given an opportunity to exist within a different set of rules.
 

Hidden in the deepest cavern in

the darkest sea

shimmering resplendently

radiant 

rarest of the rare

more valuable than le Bijou du Roi

explorers have traversed the ends 

of the earth

seeking your enchanting soul

your mystical prowess

your hypnotic allure

but—

It’s not for them

your enchantment will never belong to anyone,

but—

You.

 
 

You’re a Treasure

watercolor on cold-pressed paper

12” x 16”

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You’re a Treasure - small

watercolor on cold-pressed paper

8” x 10”

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Sapphire Study

watercolor on cold-pressed paper

5” x 7”

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You’re a Treasure - graphic

Giclee Print

sizes vary

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You’re a Treasure - the poem

Giclee Print

sizes vary

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You’re at Treasure - a study on sail cloth

graphite on upcycled catamaran sail

4” x 6”

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