Where the Whalefish Blows

This post reinforces to me and shares with you an ambition I have to make an artist book using a family artifact---a first-hand account of whaling in the 1840s.

I don't have the primary document. What I do have is a transcription typed by my great grandfather's secretary. And to give it longer life, I plan (one day) to publish it, both digitally and as a limited edition artist's book. Here is the introductory paragraph:

It was in the summer of 1843 that principally on account of some untoward family occurrences, I finally determined to go to sea. I was then a stout young man, or rather a youth of 17 years of age and living with my parents, tilling their little farm and doing my best for them, which I always wish to do. But that is a tender subject so I had best drop it.

After getting his sea legs, this distant relative of mine and his crew go on to club seals and harpoon leviathons. As I transcribe the document to my Google docs, read his account here.

You've got to self-mythologize. No one's going to do it for you.

What I'm listening to today: a presentation by Stefan Bucher from March 2010.


16'35'' ...I also get to set type, flush left, ragged right, at 9 over twelve, which ... is like maintaining a Zen garden, just raking patterns in the typographic sand ...

17'47" ...take it out of the head and put it into the hands...

Bark Beetle Galleries, © Copyright M J Richardson and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons License

Description, courtesy the photographer, M J Richardson: Galleries formed by the larvae of the conifer bark beetle (Tomicus minor). The female lays her eggs under the bark of a conifer (in this case pine) and the larvae, as they emerge, eat their way away from the laying point, to leave the characteristic pattern when the bark finally falls off. These beetles are scolytids, as are those that transmit Dutch Elm Disease.

The Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board's Forestry Division helped me locate 30 Elm Trees recently lost to Dutch Elm Disease. The sampling was based on proximity to my childhood home on 14th Ave S between 56th and 57th Streets. Eventually, these stumps will be destroyed to prevent spread of the disease. But before their destruction, Scott and I locate the specimens to photograph and make drawings.

These tracings will inform a series of prints, drawings, and paintings.

Heartfelt gratitude to Scott, my documentarian and sweetie.
Abundant thanks also to Philip Potyondy, Forester Technician with MPRB.

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