In person

The idea

Some ideas come and go. Others quietly stay with you.

Heat Wave lived in my head for nearly five years. It wasn't something I could fully explain, only something I could picture. A surfer standing in the middle of the desert. A landscape sculpted into forms that felt strangely familiar. An idea that refused to disappear until I went and made it.

As creatives, we're often pulled toward what we already know. The work we're comfortable making. But growth usually begins the moment we step outside of that. This project became an opportunity to leave my lane, embrace the unknown, and create something simply because I believed it was worth pursuing.

Standing in White Pocket, I realized the desert speaks the same visual language as the ocean. Millions of years of wind, water, pressure, and time have carved these sandstone formations into sweeping curves and endless lines that feel remarkably similar to a breaking wave. Same but different. Though separated by environment, both landscapes are shaped by movement. Both tell a story of change.

The surfboard isn't there to suggest surfing belongs in the desert. It exists as a familiar object within an unfamiliar place. A simple way of challenging perception and inviting us to look at the landscape differently. What initially feels like a contradiction slowly begins to make sense. We felt that out there.

More than anything, this project is about trusting an idea. Living with it long enough that it becomes impossible to ignore. Accepting the uncertainty that comes with bringing it to life. Trading expectation for curiosity and choosing to create anyway. That idea in and of itself gave this project life.