Monday, January 23, 2017

The Art of the Atlantic

Here I am walking along the Atlantic Ocean in Daytona Beach, Florida, on my recent birthday.  What a grand piece of art is this body of water. The sound of the waves, and the smell of the surf is nice for someone who lives in the high desert of Sedona, Arizona.The vista is wide and flat, unlike our mountainous western states. Usually I go the closer Pacific, so it was a different feel to arrive on the eastern shore.
 Did you know that the Atlantic is the second largest ocean in the world?  At 41,100,000 square miles, it covers approximately 20 % of the earth's surface. On average, it is the saltiest of the major oceans. It occupies an elongated S shaped basin extending between Eurasia, Africa and the Americas. The old world and the new. Can you imagine those sailors and settlers going off into the unknown in their small vessel, on a  notoriously changeable body of water?      
I find this vast body of water a real inspiration of the endless rhythms of nature, the ebb and flow of life. How will this find a form in my ceramics or calligraphy I am not certain. But it will. There is great art to the Atlantic.