THE FISH - Favorite Art Subject

THE FISH - Favorite Art Subject

Dr Abe V Rotor

1. Do Fish Ever Sleep?

2. Fish of the same fins get together

3. Sargassum Fish - Model of Mimicry and Camouflage

4. The Power of Imagination in Painting the Deep

         5. The Eye in the Coral Reef
         6. Nesting Fish
         7. Mutation Gone Wild Through Genetic Engineering

1. Do Fish Ever Sleep?

Fish, pastel drawing by Angelica Mijares, then 9 years old

Summer Art Workshop for Children, SPUQC, circa 2001

Once I wondered if ever fish sleep,

     Unless by sleep they remain still

In some quiet pool, like the cows and sheep,

     After their fill lie on a grassy hill.

Could either, I ask, bring about man’s ease

     And cease his mind to wonder and wander?

And where is that pool or that hill at peace,

     Save Flanders, or some place ever after?

 

2. Fish of the same fins get together

Fish of the same fins get together, AVR

Fish, in their wide, wide world

danger lurks, more so in the dark. 

Scarcely can they afford 

to be alone. Beware of the shark! 

                     3. Sargassum Fish

Model of Mimicry and Camouflage

\

Sargassum Fish in acrylic by the author, circa 2002

Strange this living world, if you wish;

fish to Sargassum, Sargassum to fish;

if evolution is by fusion

toward unification and peace,

where lies fission,

key to diversification?

There would be more fossils

than the present living,

extinguished before their time,

unfit by Darwinian rule -

unless the past had little left

the proof of the whole.

And here before our eyes: the link

of time past and present,

of fossil and the living,

changing, too nil, too slow;

wondering at Nature's game,

in her own sweet time.~

4. The Power of Imagination in Painting the Deep

 Bottom of the Sea scene by the author  (C 2000)

Imagination is more powerful than reason:

you can't go down and paint the scene;

so I took my brush and closed my eyes,

there in my mind grew a large screen.

Imagination builds our world and space,

the unseen, or just a passing of time,

take the fish in schools or in migration,

these are all beyond the mind.

In the deep, pitch black, and endless,

I brought in the sun and formed a vision

of life I knew so little with those real;

indeed, the power of imagination! ~

Convergence of fishes by the author (c.1995)

Ocean Cave, mural detail by the author (c. 2005) 

 

  Guardian Fish AVR 2000

Fish nursery  painted on jar (burnay). ~

 

 Algal Conglomerate (Volvox sp) c.2010

                           5. The Eye in the Coral Reef

The Eye in the Coral Reef, Acrylic Painting by the author 2015

The eye! The eye!

among the corals watching.

conscience of the sea,

over Homo sapiens fishing.

It never winks, it's alive,

guarding against man's folly,

whose eye, not of man,

disgraced guardian of the sea. ~

6. Nesting Fish 

"Make your nest truly a beautiful home,

never  ask why the task, and for whom."  AVR

   

Nesting Tilapia in acrylic by AVR 2011

Make a nest for your bride, make it true, 

An altar to knot your vows;

Make a nursery and a sanctuary, too

Safe from fangs and jaws. 

Abode for the homeless and those in grief,

A stopover for the weary guest, 

A fort ensconced among rocks and reefs

To hold and withstand any test.

Build a nest, but not of the proud bower bird,

Lavish but only in courtship;

Don't be like the marauding salmon in herd,

Returning only after a long trip.

Make your nest truly a beautiful home,

And none in your brood shall ever want;

Never shall you ask why the task, and for whom;   

In life's drama, this is your part. ~  

7. Mutation Gone Wild Through Genetic Engineering*

 Crustacean mutants

 Turkey fish Siamese twin

Deformed Groupers

                                Evolution through fusion: Sargassum fish 

Who is your father, who is your mother?
your sister, your brother?
You look like no one; 
where did you come from?

Who is your guardian, who is your maker?
your ancestor, your kin?
You look like alien; 
where did you come from?

Who is your friend, who is your neighbor?
your mate, your children?
You are an outcast; 
where did you come from?

Why do you have blood other than your own?
Tissue and cells enlarged?
chromosomes paired, unpaired
DNA snipped, spliced? 

Why do you have to be a giant among the small?
Or Lilliputian to be smart?
shaped like barrel or grass,
armed with less or more?

Why do you have to eat more than you should?
ravage all - big and small
to grow too large heeding not
the fate of the dinosaur?

Why do you have to veer away from your origin?
evade the dictates of nature?
live like vagabond 
sans company, sans home?
What good is science destined to nowhere?
 thriving on trial and error?
and having no control 
of good and evil? 

What good  is science sans conscience clear?
though genius its master
at the border of insanity
for fame and glory? 

What good is science that creates a Frankenstein
monster deprived of love,
home and family, 
rebel against humanity?

What good is science that destroys what it builds?  
like mad destroying the Pieta
for not seeing true beauty
in  simplicity and piety? ~

* Spontaneous thoughts of the author while painting 

these images of an unnatural world.