BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — The Brevard Zoo is hard at work raising funds to build the first aquarium and conservation center on the Space Coast as two dozen talented artists are using their creativity to garner community support.

"They said it's so fun not to be working on a rectangular canvas, this is really a challenge for most of them," Joan Engel of the Brevard Zoo Aquarium Task Force told Spectrum News 13.

The artists will be showcasing their creativity on donated surfboards. And one of the artists who is contributing to making the dream of the aquarium come true is also making it a family affair.

For decades, KC Grapes of West Melbourne has worked in charcoal, watercolor acrylics and fabrics. 

She sells much of her award-winning work through the Brevard Cultural Alliance.

She is among the 25 artists chosen to participate in the Brevard Zoo's campaign to build an aquarium and conservation center in Port Canaveral.

"This is going to be a fun project that we all do together, that our daughter, and he and I do together as a piece of fine art," says Grapes.

A Florida theme is all over the canvasses they are using: Recycled surfboards.

"I've never done anything like this, this is probably a little bit closer to the folk art things that I've done," Grapes says. "It's going to the zoo, and I want them to like it, so I thought I would do a little sketching first."

But this is also a family affair.

Husband Robert "Beep" Michaud earned a degree from the New York Institute of Photography and sells his pictures through the Brevard Cultural Alliance.

Michaud is also a woodworker by trade, who builds custom furniture and more.

"My goal is to have something last a lifetime," he says. "Compared to something you'd buy in an online store."

He admits to not being good at math, something a woodworker needs. But still does his best.

"Ross Perot used to say 'measure twice, saw once', well I measure three times, saw twice and go to Lowes and get a new board, that's my thing," Michaud laughs.

He will be helping fashion the surfboard into a bench. The only one being made in the group.

"We come at the project from different directions, and come up with something unique," Michaud says.

Bring in daughter Kestrel who is a quilter who makes artwork out of fabric.

The award winner graduated with honors. She says her family is their biggest critics.

"I'm so glad this family supports emergency art direction," Kestrel jokes.

Her mom says she had a crayon in her hand before she learned to walk.

Kestrel's style is the opposite of her mom's.

"She uses templates, and is precise, and exact," says Grapes, adding with a laugh, “And I just like to let it rip.”

She will help color and fill in the surfboard's design.

And when it, and all of the other boards, are done, they will be part of an art exhibition displayed at the zoo for the aquarium fundraiser.

"You're doing something good for the environment, the zoo and the aquarium," says Grapes.

The surfboard art will be on display at Brevard Zoo from mid-November to late April 2023.

Future auctions and donations will go towards the $100-million aquarium project.