If you happened to be at the beach near the Morro Bay campground about a month ago, you might have seen or even participated in the construction of a beautiful temporary shell art piece.
“This past Father’s Day weekend, I made a large temporary installation on Morro Strand State Beach—the words ‘IT’S UP TO YOU’ spelled out in roughly 4-foot letters, made entirely from my grandmother’s lifetime shell collection,” Wynde Dyer, a local artist, explained. “I started it alone, but over about eight hours, dozens of strangers—mostly families visiting from the Central Valley—stopped and helped fill in the letters. Then I left the whole thing on the beach for the ocean and passersby to take apart on their own time.”
It’s an amazing story and worth sharing because it demonstrates the power of art.
“It’s about agency, release, and community,” Dyer continued. “Almost nothing in it was bought: the shells are my grandmother’s, and the stakes holding my string lines were my grandfather’s nails from the house I live in.”
Dyer, a multi-disciplinary artist whose work can be viewed on her website, wyndedyer.com, lived in Portland for 21 years before moving back to the Central Coast in 2022. You can see full documentation, including a short video explaining the piece, on her Instagram: @wyndedyer. Δ
This article appears in July 16-23, 2026.
