The Affairs of Dead Fish

This is the time of year when the beach gets really trashed. Both humans and nature conspire to beat the hell out of it. Without ice dunes to protect it, any good northwest wind will blow in a slick of trash. Little plastic objects, water bottles and wood ranging from whole trees to kindling, with an occasional piece of construction material thrown in mark the water line. Warmer weather attracts people down to the beach to drink and set fires. Unfortunately many of these people are the kind of empty headed genetic dead ends who feel that the beach is their private garbage can. Some lack the intelligence that god promised a door knob and they will smash their bottles on the stones. Apparently the connection between broken glass and bare feet on the beach eludes them. A pox...Nature sometimes throws up a little garbage of her own, but it is almost always more interesting. I must admit, I like dead fish. I don't particularly like to eat them, or smell them. It's more of a visual thing. I don't recall exactly when my love affair with dead fish began, but it's probably been longer than my marriage. Sometimes they are bloated, sometimes dessicated or gull-pecked, but always interesting. Some of them are frightening enough looking that it gives me second thoughts about swimming down there. I've never seen one that I took for granted, though. A lot of these unfortunate fish have ended up in paintings, including the one above. Immortalized as a work of art maybe isn't the fish's preference, but is it not better than oblivion? My wife often chides me when she sees me working on a fish painting, but I now put it down to envy. I have done more paintings of fish than I have of her, perhaps she is getting suspicious of the relationship between us. Oddly enough, whenever a fish painting strays into one of my exhibitions it almost always sells. So I know that there are others who share my attraction. Being a Pisces, I sometimes wonder if there is something cosmic at the root of it all. Ahhh, fish.

Some shots of the latest additions to the new Stonewave. It is still taking shape. Several times over the last weeks it has been vandalized by fire-starting drunkards, so I have had to spend much time restoring it. A bit frustrating, so it goes. If I can get a couple of hours of good stacking, I think I can start to get it into the form that I want, but right now the top appears to be amorphous and it remains to be seen how it will all come together. I've been having trouble getting the curve to do what it needs to do. So I'm patiently waiting for the stone to make a decision.