We know this: if there aren’t enough females, there won’t be enough
eggs; without eggs, there is no tomorrow. And this:
female crabs in Maryland waters have not yet laid their eggs, for eggs
are laid in more southern waters.
We do not know her – we know of her;
her deep ways are hidden.
On the surface she is housekeeper & water dancer.
Hard and soft, deep blue and bright red,
she proclaims the generations of tomorrow
in fluorescent oranges.
She holds her place in the universe
and we do not know what she holds back.
Most disappearances are of exotic things – species whose name we can-
not say, whose face we have not seen, from places we have not been.
But not always. Our Blue Crab, our Beautiful Swimmers are here and
now…and their numbers are dropping.
Wylde Women’s Wisdom
Since I first wrote the above, some moritoriums on taking crabs have been put in place. They are holding their own, but the problem is that we really don’t know that much about their life cycles. We do know without eggs there is no tomorrow. Let the females go. Tammy Vitale
13 Comments
Beautiful, Tammy! I can’t wait to see it after being fired.
[…] is Beautiful Swimmer finally and at last. I loved her in her first incarnation that died in the fire. I loved her in her 2nd incarnation: pristine […]
[…] Take II (who now becomes, simply her goddess self: Beautiful Swimmer) fired and ready to finish (here is the original.). I can actually see doing one of these pieces and just leaving it clear glazed […]
[…] plan was to work on Beautiful Swimmer and show you the progress yesterday, but, alas, you know what planning does: it makes the gods […]
Oh she is lovely, Tammy . . . . and your words really stir me. Think of all we hold back in ourselves as well, that never rises to the surface, that stays hidden, that often dies without being known or celebrated.
[…] of that is by way of saying that today’s Art Every Day Month offering is yet another piece of Beautiful Swimmer – it is in process. I want dangly beads on the same side as the shell, which is the point of the […]
such a beautiful piece of work and I hope she fires up beautifully… such lovely words as well… you just put it all together so beautifully day after day xx
[…] Yesterday you saw the beginning of Beautiful Swimmers. Here is the rest of her. The head isn’t attached, I just positioned it to make sure the pieces would fit should I decide finally to go with her this way. The big challenge is that her body standing up is about 2″ bigger than my kiln (and 7″ bigger than prone on a shelf). So I’m going to have to let her dry really well and carefully place her at an angle and hope that all works well (what else is new!). Just as well I didn’t want to glaze her. That would present even more challenges to keep her from glueing herself to a side wall with the glaze. then, if she comes through firing, I’ll probably need to reinforce the neck area some how, even after I glue the pieces together. Maybe a board glued on the back of the neck. I’ll have to think about that. In other words, just because I’ve gotten this far doesn’t mean I’ll make it to the finish line with what I have in mind. If there’s something else that wants to emerge, I’m sure it will make itself known one way or the other! […]
Dear Tammy, your artwork is so beautiful and your words made me think of our wonderfull world and I felt sad,so this is an important piece of work; it touches people.
In my minds eye I can see the light on the surface of the water; I wonder;will you give this a high glaze?
Blessings,
Virginia.x
Beautiful torso work and words Tammy. It is sad to see our beloved wild things go. 🙁 I’m glad they are putting some measures in place to help keep them for future generations to enjoy. It’s too bad it takes things getting to an extreme before measures are taken.
Breaks my heart how insensitive humans can be to life itself.
Beautiful sculpture and thoughts. 🙂
You are welcome! And thank you for your kind words!
It’s so heartbreaking how so many exotic things are disappearing. Thanks for getting the word out. And your beautiful swimmer is so moving.