Personalizing It.

Now I Can!

The Islands of the Bahamas and West Indies, custom signed and personalized. View Details.

Now that I have a stateside address again, I can offer custom signed Giclee prints. I couldn't for years because of international shipping rates, customs issues, costs, and delays.

The ease of living stateside is shocking compared to where I have lived these last 29 years.

It has taken me a long while to stop gasping or saying out loud, "Do you know what this would cost in Tortola? If you could even find it!" Or, "OMG, that arrived in one day?"

I had adjusted like every long-term expat does to the tradeoffs. I did not expect to go through the same sticker shock in reverse. But I've lived outside of the border nearly as long as I've lived in it.

This made me realize my island-life roots are longer than I knew.

I've tried to live by the old Tibetan saying, 'The secret to true happiness is to have no expectations.'

I was standing outside a market one day, waiting for my Uber driver, people watching, and listening to bits and pieces of conversation as they passed. Every single one of them was grumbling, some rather loudly about a low stock item, check-out line delays, or the customer service. I laughed to myself, I was just happy that a clerk smiled. She greeted me with a polite, "Hi, how are you doing today? Did you find everything?" OMG, how sweet! She even waited for a reply, chatted and laughed, and then went as far as to tell me to have a nice day. Hold crap, my autoresponder system went into culture shock.

I stood there in the summer sun, baking on the sidewalk that could fry an egg, grinning, listening to people complain and contrasting it to the year I'd just survived post Irma. Perspective is a beautiful thing.

I noticed a vending machine against the store wall and bought two icy Dasani waters.

My driver pulled up, popped the trunk, and hurried around the car.

I handed him a bottle water. He said, "Thanks, " loading bags in the trunk, "You know, no one has ever offered me a cold drink." I knew he probably meant at his job as a driver, and not in his life, but still. That's sad. It was humid and HOT.

So now, a year or so later, that the shiny, newly arrived adjustment period is over, and I'm as spoiled and crabby as everyone else. (Kidding!)

Seriously, I am just now getting my head around; 'Hey! (or another expletive I use) I am in the US of A. I have reasonable and timely shipping options.'

So I am offering my prints custom signed and personalized. And you don't need to be on the island for me to do it.

If you have a special occasion or someone you would like to buy a unique gift for, let me know which print, size, and where it is to be shipped. -The chart's page above shows an example of sizes and art paper available.

Custom signed can be any little special message, a few words, and written at the bottom of the print along with my signature.

I do have a few of my nautical charts on hand, but maybe not in the size you'd like, so contact me with any questions you might have.

I had one couple buy the Belize maps and use them for guests to sign at their Beach wedding reception in Belize. I signed and added a blessing quote they wanted on the bottom of each, before shipping them to their home address to hand-carry down with the wedding gown… Everyone's signatures and good wishes made them an extra special memory piece.

On a Caribbean chart, a guest of a new boat owner asked me to write, "Home is where the anchor drops," and add the boat's name on his surprise house warming gift. Nice friend.

On another chart, bought as a gift for the husband after a US / BVI vacation, the wife requested their charter vessel's name and asked me to mark a red X at a specific site on the map. The wife had a giggle fit (when she marked in pencil precisely where she wanted it) but would not elaborate. I'll always wonder.

Another wanted a course line drawn of their charter, with notes literally scribbled (not fancy script) on the map, "dolphins, dragged anchor, shark, rum, rum and coffee, rum…"

LOL. My charts lend themselves to this, but I've had others too. Like the Traveler's Palm as a wedding present because the wife and her family were from Madagascar. I did not know before this that (Strelitziaceae) is considered the iconic symbol of Madagascar. I just love traveling and enjoyed the folklore around the plant, so I'd spent a couple days sitting in the shade and drawing a wonderful traveler's palm in Belize.

So let me know if you have a request.