Cod, white, on blue green dropcloth, facing right Print

Cod Please meet the Atlantic Cod, or Gadus morhua. This creature has been both economically and historically important to Canada, the cod fish was a natral resource that brought Europeans to North America, although from a culinary perspective it might be as accurate to say that the Cod joined Canada along with Newfoundland. As a part of the Animal Silhouette series, the cod represents the east coast as well as the deer or beaver, and while you don't spot them while motorcycling on the Cabot Trail, you see evidence of their impact throughout the coastal communities of the east coast, a legacy of 500 years of intensive cod fishing only recently halted to protect the species. These digital images of cod are created by superimposing two layers of paper, with a cod silhouette shape cut out of it, and laid over a recycled map or a dropcloth background on the flatbed of my scanner. The map series uses old recycled paper maps, which motorcyclists are using less and less in these days of gps and digital devices, so much more compact than a cumbersome paper map, so I've been collecting old maps from riding friends to include in this series. The dropcloth backgrounds are created from the paper I use to cover my work surface when I paint, they collect the drips, smears and splatters from my artwork, and marks from things set upon the surface of my table. The inclusion of bubble wrap monoprints is intentional, meant as a reminder of the dangers of plastic waste in the oceans. The resulting scanned images show positive and negative space versions of each creature in the animal silhouette series, in some cases in both black and white, and facing in different directions. An intriguing fish species, socially gregarious and with a distinctive barbel on their chin, this fish can grow to a significant size, and is considered a vulnerable species due to human predation. Kissing the Cod is part of a Newfoundland tradition for people who 'come from away' to 'Screech in' and become, essentially, adopted as a Newfoundlander, by drinking Screech and kissing a cod. The Cod is a late addition the animal silhouette series, since I don't encounter fish in my day to day dry land existence, but the economic importance of this creature, as well as the sentimental connection with my east coast motorcycle trips brought it to mind, and encouragement from my marine biologist professor cousin helped bring this creature to life in this series. Please join me in welcoming the cod to the animal silhouette series, kissing not required.