The Wheel of Fortune turns, rising and falling with the tides, reminding us that every action ripples outward. Within this turning, the Southern Sea Otter drifts, both as a guardian and witness to the shifting balance of the sea. Once the keeper of the kelp forests, the otter’s presence maintained an equilibrium, holding the line against the Purple Sea Urchin’s hunger for kelp. But as waters warm and pressures mount, the wheel spins faster. The otter, burdened by loss and pollution, can no longer contain the tide. The urchins multiply unchecked, devouring the underwater forests that once swayed beneath the surface as a home to an entire ecosystem. Now, vast stretches of California’s coast lie barren, 95% of the kelp forests gone, Oregon has lost 70%. The once-green cathedrals of the sea now float to the top, coming to shore where their duty as food and protection cease. The otter floats within this precarity, clutching their pup against the current, a fragile axis in a wheel that turns too fast. Yet The Wheel also offers hope. Its lesson is cyclical, what falls may rise again, if balance is restored. When we slow the turning through restoration, restraint, and reverence life returns to the circle. The kelp remains mounted, the sea breathes, the otter drifts once more among the green strands of safety and abundance. How will we influence its motion? Through neglect, or through care? Each act of reducing waste, protecting waterways, and being intentional about what actions we take as consumers becomes a spoke in the wheel of renewal. Other ways to help include supporting marine conservation organizations such as the Elakha Alliance and the Oregon Kelp Alliance. The calmer the waters, the less violently the wheel turns and for now, this balance is still possible. By screenprinting etching cream onto thin glass I am able to deepen my connection to using glass as a symbol for precarity in this body of work as every part of the process for making that piece required a delicate and slow regard. The charms, like rocks the otter holds onto - consist of pebbles from the Oregon coast - painted with hard ground, which is a petroleum product. Flame painted copper flames, two porcelain vases stained black - and two pieces of oil slick dichroic glass all acting as depictions of the oil spilled into the ocean, met in the center with a metal portal, blue tinted vase and blue glass representing the efforts and people in place to prevent more pipelines, ocean pollution and invasive purple sea urchins from inhibiting the Sea otter and so many others, to survive.