Yes, a dead fish.

Number six in my series of travel sketches.

I saw this guy right off of the harbor that Awesome Boyfriend and I rode our bikes through almost everyday in Key West. Just chilling. Staring at me with his only remaining eye.

Why not a live fish?

Live fish of this size do not sit still.

Even though I felt slightly morbid and creepy, and nerdish drawing this guy in his half-rotten state, he was still pretty fascinating. Full of wild, organic lines. It was intriguing to be simultaneously drawing the inside and outside of a (once) living thing. A short biology lesson, if you will.

I am a nerd at heart. I may be an artist, but I have huge interests in science, technology, literature, philosophy writing…our world! Before I decided to major in Art, I was going to major in Computer Science. Ironic.

Sometimes I feel like I never have enough time to discover everything around me. Maybe thats what categorizes artists as artists, if there is any. We’re just people that want to immerse ourselves in the world around us. Most of us are smart. Some of us are dumbasses. But you’ll have that in any field, no?

And then you have art interpretation in Iowa: *insert redneck dialect* My four-yer-old cen doo thaaat! *facepalm*

And with that, I’ll leave you with a quote. I read this in my Modernist Literature class, which is rocking my world. Why do I have to graduate this semester? Can I just keep learning please?

“And so when you attend a concert or visit a gallery and are confronted by what seems to you ugly or upsetting or incomprehensible, be hesitant about giving it an instant thumbs-down. Yes, the painting might look like your third-grader did it with a day-glo crayon, the concert sound nothing like Mozart or Fall Out Boy, and yet, just maybe, you are missing the point. The Rite of Spring provoked riot; Jackson Pollack’s abstractions were dismissed as jokes. Which of us would have immediately recognized their originality and grandeur? Wait awhile. Only critics on deadline must rush to judgement.” -Michael Dirda

In our “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” society (Facebook, StumbleUpon anyone?) I find this to be some food for thought. What do you think?