I’ve painted murals for a few temporary exhibits of crabs, tide pools, and mangrove swamps at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.

The crab exhibit featured a flat cut-out of a giant crab over the entrance that was half organic creature and half robot. Inside was a full-scale, rather intimidating recreation of this hybrid that visitors could walk under. Painting him was like working on a monster for a B-level sci-fi movie: fun.

Take Your Daughter to Work Day occurred during the tide pool job, so I brought mine, then nine years old, and had her do texturing of the faux rocks with a natural sponge. When done, we found an obscure spot in the rocks and signed the mural, “Niki and Daddy.”