Description:
Keeper of the Shore is a small but commanding coastal sentinel—an abstract figure born from washed-up ephemera and shaped into something quietly noble. Standing straight and sturdy at center, a wine cork forms the body, banded with braided rope as if cloaked in a sailor’s sash or bound by duty. Above, a sharp shard of white sea glass serves as a shoulder cape or folded collar, while a reddish shard—slanted just so—becomes a hat, topped by a tiny shell like a seafarer’s badge.

The face is minimal: two inked vertical lines that suggest eyes or perhaps the open gaze of a lighthouse’s slit window. Below the cork base, a sea urchin test and cowrie shell rest like offerings—or tools—symbolizing nature’s ancient armory.

The canvas is bare, the negative space intentional. It frames the figure in quiet reverence, placing full focus on the materials and their surprising humanity. This is not just assemblage—it’s myth in miniature.

Societal Theme:
Keeper of the Shore speaks to guardianship in an age of erosion. This figure, sculpted from the fragments of leisure (wine corks), consumption (glass), and ancient marine life, becomes a symbol of quiet resilience and stewardship. It reminds us that protecting the coast requires more than policy—it requires presence, spirit, and the honoring of what washes up at our feet.

By placing this work in the Free Little Art Gallery, the artist invites anyone—local or visitor—to become a keeper in their own way. It is both totem and torchbearer, a sentinel not of size but of meaning. Modest in scale, immense in message.