Momentum Creative Community
A 6-month program to expand and unleash your creativity!
Tera Kelley
Writer/Illustrator
"Ocean Baby" is a picture book story of a toddler who loves the beach so much he escapes out the back door of his Santa Cruz home, crawls down a lagoon trail, and toddles across the sand into a landscape of waves, gulls, sea otters, dolphins and one mama sea lion who is determined he'll make it home for bedtime.
Momentum for me is about coming out of hiding and starting to put my talents, creativity, and unique expression out into the commons. And in particular the project that I'm working on, Ocean Baby, is my offering to this beloved Santa Cruz community. It's an expression of how much I adore where I live.
The scenes from the book are taken from the route I travel twice a week, accompanying a young golden retriever on a walk in the afternoons on East Cliff Drive and 20th Street Beach. Ducks and egrets in the lagoon, sea otters, dolphins, sea lions playing in the waves or sprawled on the cliffs...these are all the creatures I encounter with continued wonder and awe, over and over again.
Ocean Baby came about because part of my job in the children's department of Bookshop Santa Cruz is to review the next season of books and to decide what we want to carry in our store. After the tenth baby-at-the-beach book fell flat for me, I thought, I can do better than this. I dusted off my artistic talent (barely used for the last 13 years) and began imagining the iconic Santa Cruz way of life through an infant's eyes. I hope you'll enjoy going on this journey with me as I splash some paint around, draft scenes, curse and bless mistakes, imagine and create.
Find out more about my project at: