Anne-Emmanuelle Marpeau at Penobscot

Bob Holtzman has kindly written to alert us to a new exhibit at Penobscot Marine Museum, Inside the Box -- The Marine Art of Anne-Emmanuelle Marpeau, on exhibit through Sept. 10. Unfortunately, there's not much on their site about the exhibit, but The Gleason Fine Art website has a short article about Marpeau, mentioning the inspiration she finds in a line by Thoreau, "And I converse with many a shipwrecked crew."

This is from a poem called "The Fisher's Boy," which is available on the Thoreau Reader site:

The Fisher's Boy
by Henry David Thoreau

My life is like a stroll upon the beach,
As near the ocean's edge as I can go;
My tardy steps its waves sometimes o'erreach,
Sometimes I stay to let them overflow.

My sole employment is, and scrupulous care,
To place my gains beyond the reach of tides, —
Each smoother pebble, and each shell more rare,
Which Ocean kindly to my hand confides.

I have but few companions on the shore:
They scorn the strand who sail upon the sea;
Yet oft I think the ocean they've sailed o'er
Is deeper known upon the strand to me.

The middle sea contains no crimson dulse,
Its deeper waves cast up no pearls to view;
Along the shore my hand is on its pulse,
And I converse with many a shipwrecked crew.

Lovely thoughts to take along to a maritime museum--to keep in mind when engaging with the items on exhibit.