The Lifeguard by Pamela Morris, 30 x 40 inches oil on canvas. Completed September 2006.

The image is a restaging of an event from my memory. In 2003, I visited Canaveral National Seashore and in the parking lot of the visitor's center, a lifeguard came up cradling a loggerhead sea turtle hatchling in a towel. She explained that she saw it struggling in the surf for a while and scooped it up to bring it to the biologist on duty, who suggested putting it in the lagoon behind the center to regain its strength before making its way out to the ocean again.

A friend posed for me in 2006. I had to reduce her cleavage from the photos I took of her because the cleavage was too distracting. That done, many people don't ever see the turtle...