Description

This Weakfish was caught by my friend Ken around one of the islands of the Tangier Sound. He brought this over to me on that Friday night of September 19, 2025, which was also the night of the kick-off to the 2025 Maryland Folk Festival. I was so excited to be invited as a Maryland Folklife Area demonstrator to paint and press local oysters into Gyotakus and share the art form as well as part of the culture of living near the water on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. That same weekend in Downtown Salisbury, the Museum of Eastern Shore Culture featured me as one of their Maryland Folk Festival artist exhibits.

This particular painted memory reminds me of the weekend when the culmination of many hours of consistent, organized, creative intention, along with an abundance of support from so many fantastic people like Ken, became a major turning point and growth spurt for Eastern Shore Gyotaku. It reminds me of how art, human expression, can bring so many people and so many different people together.