When McKenzie Oerting graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from University of Houston in 1982, she was already working in a respected illustration studio. Though doing award-winning work, she found she was always illustrating someone else's concept, so she became an art director. She was Sr. A.D. at a mid-sized advertising agency in Houston when the oil boom went bust and she was laid off. In 1987, she founded the first computer graphics design firm in Houston. After rocky beginnings, the company found a niche in high-performance racing graphics for boats. In 2000, increased online sales permitted the artist to return to the Pensacola area. She was closer to family members. Still, the lack of a greater purpose in her work troubled McKenzie.

In September 2004, Hurricane Ivan devastated Pensacola. McKenzie's business was shut down, at least temporarily. Her family home was flooded. Many good friends had lost their homes entirely. One day, Oerting was photographing hurricane-damaged boats. She kept zooming in until, surprisingly, what appeared on the camera screen looked like abstract impressionist paintings. Out of chaos and destruction, she had created something beautiful. It was like sun breaking through dark clouds. Finally, a message -- one both she and the storm-battered community could use: From Chaos, Beauty. She bought a better camera that night. She knew she was onto something big.

One year later, in September 2005, McKenzie awoke from a colonoscopy to the shocking diagnosis of stage III rectal cancer. In waiting rooms, she saw radar images of hurricanes Katrina and Rita swirling across television screens. She started thinking of her tumor as her own personal hurricane. She remembered the message of the hurricane abstracts: "From Chaos, Beauty." She would rise from the wreckage to paint again. Many things had been swept away in Ivan, but in her own internal 'natural disaster,' she would find what she needed. She would find the meaning she had sought.