Cornered

Oil on Canvas 8 x 8 Framed

• SOLD

• On display at Meetinghouse Arts, Freeport Maine as of June 21, 2024.

As one of my In Their World series, “Cornered” (affectionately known as Larry) was puzzling to approach due to the lack of inspiration. Vivid underwater photography is scarce in these parts. Maybe not in Key West, where cerulean waters provide snorkeling tourists ample moments to snap photos of spiny lobsters. But in Maine, the stoic Homarus Americanus bimbles around murky colder northern waters and mostly at night. A pein air study of an American Lobster / Nothern Lobsters / Maine Lobster / Massachusetts Lobster / Canadian Lobster (naming seems to be more of a human problem than the lobster’s) wasn’t going to work. Looking around lobster art is abundant as abstract, pop, cartoon, and of course, within a buttered bun. Even as bright red keychains on Maine street to fun wall art from one of my local artists, Ack Me, just down the road on the gallery/studio trail in Freeport, Maine.

I was compelled to depict Larry in his natural environment.

If one finds a lack of crustacean images in the Gulf of Maine now, it will be even more so in another decade. The sea surface temperatures of the Gulf of Maine, as of 2022, earned the distinct and not-so-coveted title of one of the fastest-warming ocean regions on the planet. The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 97% of the world’s ocean surface.

“Cornered” as a title is less about a food source and more about the environment. The environment for the lobster and the people of Maine. As I painted, I became fascinated. If the story was not about Larry, but Laura, she might share these facts from NOAA Fisheries:

• A freshly-laid lobster egg is the size of the head of a pin (1/16").

• A 1-pound female lobster usually carries approximately 8000 eggs.

• A 9-pound female may carry more than 100,000 eggs.

• The female lobster carries the eggs inside for 9 to 12 months and then for another 9 to 12 months attached to the swimmerets under her tail.

• When the eggs hatch, the larvae will float near the surface for 4 to 6 weeks.

• The few that survive will settle to the bottom and continue to develop as baby lobsters. From every 50,000 eggs, only two lobsters are expected to survive to legal size.

• Lobster babies swim at the water's surface for 25 days. Only one percent make it to the bottom. These young lobsters shed their shells about ten times in their first year. A near-shore lobster has a 90 percent chance of ending up on someone's dinner plate.

Process

Developing this series brought me to two different challenges.

The first: is a close-knit reduced value to communicate the stillness, fading into one another depicting the lobster wedged into rocks for safety. Cornered as a lobster does, claw caught by the light, waiting patiently. In creating this piece, the fewer values the better, for storytelling - which creates cohesiveness, and emotion. Everything is connected through its color family. I like this. Everything is connected. Everything is connected.

The second? As rare as spotting a lobster is in our cold waterways, it is also rare to find art depicting a non-graphic lobster. Could the use of color turn this bottom crawler into an engaging visual? Can something that normally creates ‘ewwwwws’ create curiosity through art? That is up to the viewer. What do you say?