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The Bass &
Bluefish Derby Kid's Day has been rescheduled for September 24 due
to weather.
Gone Fishin': Artist creates with an angler's
perspective
September 15, 2005
By Nelson Sigelman
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Charlie Giordano at work in his West Tisbury studio.
Photo courtesy of Charles Giordano
Squibnocket Striper, one of a limited edition of 100 Giclee
prints from a series titled "Game Fish Revisited."
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Growing up and later working in Alaska, Charlie Giordano's life
has been shaped by fishing. So it is only natural that fishing would
also influence his artistic skills.
I first saw some examples of Charlie's artwork on a hot humid evening
in August. The beach fishing had slowed to the speed of traffic
moving through Five Corners, the gnats and mosquitoes were all that
was biting, so I decided it was a good time to suggest to my wife
we take a stroll around Edgartown.
My wife can spend hours browsing in art galleries. I have a more
limited attention span. Finding Charlie's artwork in the Edgartown
Art Gallery next to the Colonial Inn was like hitting the dutiful
husband jackpot: I could hang out with my wife in an art gallery,
talk about the art and spend time looking at fish.
So what if I could not pronounce the word "giclee," which
describes the printmaking process by which Charlie achieves the
subtle color tones that set his fish images apart. I may know very
little about art, but I can usually get a sense when I look at an
image if the artist who created it is also a fisherman. I had no
doubt that was the case looking at Charlie's prints.
This week I caught up to Charlie at the home he shares with his
wife Mary, daughter Bella, and a hound-dog named Sancho. Charlie
was born in Syracuse, New York and spent summers on the Vineyard.
By the age of 13 he was living in Alaska where his mother Suzanne
Fenn and her husband Bucky Burrows were operating a commercial herring
processing plant in a small town of about 50 people on Good News
Bay.
Charlie worked in the commercial fishing industry as a teenager
unloading boats and later operated a tender on the Kuskokwim River.
He continued fishing commercially in Alaska until his mid-twenties.
Charlie said he discovered his artistic roots while studying fine
art photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester,
New York. The desire to find a medium to express the beauty he had
always found in the shapes and colors of fish was a natural step.
"I think I understand fish pretty well," said Charlie.
"And I think one of the neat things of being an artist is that
in dealing with your subject you get to understand your subject
matter a whole lot better by the time you are done dealing with
it."
Charlie's limited edition fine art subjects include striped bass,
bluefish, false albacore, bonito, rainbow trout and brook trout.
He said he prefers the giclee process because it allows him to achieve
a certain sense of vibrancy in both the colors and image of his
subject.
The true color of a fish when it is first pulled fresh from the
water, which most fishermen know disappears very quickly, is what
he strives to capture in his work. "People who catch the fish
know that and appreciate that and so I am concerned with matching
that same luminescence and vibrancy," said Charlie. "So
people who catch fish, see that in the print and they remark on
it and I think they appreciate it because it goes away so quick."
Anatomical proportions are also important but not to the extent
that each image must be an exact replica of a fish. Charlie said
his first priority is to use light shadow and color to create a
work of art.
"Above all you don't want it to be a dead fish on the wall,
it has got to be a live fish," he said. "And that is where
color is really the most important thing. Most fish are about color,
especially when you pull them out of the drink and you have the
sun shining on them. For me, what really gives a fish its life and
vitality is that color, so I pay good attention to that."
Not surprisingly, most of his customers tend to be connected to
the sport of fishing. Many are guys who want to hang a picture on
the office wall to remind them of fishing and what they would rather
be doing, but not all. Some just like fish.
"It never fails to amaze me how many people are attracted to
fish prints," he said. "Sometimes I will have housewives
buying pictures of fish to put in their kitchens or bathrooms, whatever,
and I look at these women and I am pretty dang sure they are not
doing a lot of fishing."
The art print process begins with catching a fish on a fly rod.
The freshly caught fish is immediately photographed to capture its
natural color.
His popular series, "Squibnocket Striper," began with
a bass caught off the fabled fishing area. A framed print 18.5 inches
by 33 inches in size costs $495.
In addition to his fine art prints, Charlie produces a line of greeting
cards with distinctly offbeat fishing themes. They include "Life's
a fish, then you fry," and "Here's looking at you, squid."
Charlie said that although he is pretty busy these days he will
not make the mistake he made a few years ago when he did not enter
the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, the month-long
tournament that kicked off on Sunday for the sixtieth year.
Charlie landed an albie from the shore. A nearby fisherman inspected
his catch and told him the fish would put him in first place. But
Charlie did not have a Derby button. "I guess I learned my
lesson," he said.
Charlie has a small studio and showroom next to his house off Christiantown
Road in West Tisbury. When not capturing fish he produces commercial
work as Panjea Design Company. To see some of Charlie Giordano's
artwork and card collections go to www.redground.net.
Kids Mini Derby
The Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby committee
hosts a tournament just for children between the ages of 4 and 14
at the Oak Bluffs Steamship Authority wharf from 6 to 9 am this
Saturday.
Scup have long been a mainstay of the tournament. Unfortunately,
the recent closure of the recreational scup fishery means the kids
will not be able to keep any scup.
Ed Jerome, derby president, said the committee plans to use a bucket
brigade of sorts so that scup can be measured quickly and released.
It should also provide an opportunity to talk to the kids about
fishing regulations.
There is no charge for kids to participate, and all of the kids
will receive a free T-shirt, thanks to the generous sponsorship
of the Jackson, Lewis, Schnitzler, and Krupman law firm in New York,
arranged by Andy Peterson, a Tisbury seasonal resident and member
of the firm, the Martha's Vineyard Co-operative Bank, and Okuma.
This is a morning of fishing for kids. Parents are reminded that
they may not fish and are there only to help the kids.
There is a possibility the committee could postpone the tournament
if swells from Ophelia create dangerous sea conditions. For the
latest information, call your local tackle shop or check the derby
web site.
No scup
Fishermen are grousing about the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF)
closure of the recreational scup fishery on Sept. 1 but the state
is a member of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC),
a regional body that monitors and regulates fish stocks, and must
comply.
According to a DMF press release, the ASMFC adopted a region-wide
seasonal closure after determining that target fishing mortality
had been exceeded in the recreational scup fishery.
It may be disappointing, but the fact is that the striper fishery
rebounded under ASMFC regulatory guidance and if fishermen need
to find another striper bait to help the scup stocks there are plenty
of choices.
In response to the closure John Custer, derby committee chairman,
reminded fishermen in a posting on the discussion board of the Derby
website (mvderby.com) that "Violation of federal and/or state
fishing laws is obviously also against Derby rules. Therefore, recreationally
fishing for scup, and then using those scup as bait for Derby-eligible
species would be breaking Derby rules."
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