My husband and I have begun crabbing. Or, more precisely, we’ve begun to try to crab. This is perhaps not something you expected to hear. First we drove across the hills to the Pacifica pier, to scope out the action. Waves were high and white-laced and wild.
Christmas morning we returned, prepared now with crab snare and bait. I was excited by the prospect of fierce seas, seafood and the sea green of my watch cap against the purple fleece vest. Little things.
But the pier had been closed. Part of the Santa Cruz wharf had recently washed away, and as these municipalities don’t have the budget to maintain structures as our ocean changes with the climate, a safety inspection is required. Back to the car with our gear we went.
Before we tried for crab another day, inspired by the glee of novelty and an experience that stilled my thoughts, I took myself to see the Amy Sherald exhibit at our SFMOMA. You will know her for this painting, at the very least.
The rest of her work is if anything more spectacular. Here are just a few examples, as the exhibit is large and covers most of her career.
The wall text resonates with anything I’ve ever written about style, but, to understate what I am not qualified to fully voice, from a wholly different life experience.
Then we went crabbing again, this time by the Golden Gate Bridge on a bright blue day.
Here I am pretending to have thrown a snare in the water, which I did not. My husband is the expert. Two sea lions swam below us, both very endearing and very much obstacles to catching a single crab, which we did not. We will try again. Apparently, with squid. The sky, the color of the Bay, and the patterns of the water shapes all conspired in elation.
Sitting here this morning, I was struck–as how could I not be–by my extraordinary good fortune and by the grin on my face that to be blunt we do not see, for example, in Amy Sherald’s paintings. The world I get to live in, both physically and cognitively, although by no means pain-free, is beautiful. And I resolved again in this new year not to feel shame at this good fortune, but to do whatever lies within my capabilities to expand others’ access. This is just me, I am not directing anyone, but I feel it so acutely.
Happy New Year, my friends. Have a good weekend, be glad about art, and look around you before casting.
18 Responses
My son-in-law is an effective crab fisher, but we haven’t benefited so much from that lately. I may have to point that out to him . . .
Loved this post (and oh, I would love to see that exhibition!) — but I was shocked to see your link to it on FB. How/why were you blogging on a non-Saturday? Apparently, the last several weeks have separated me from my calendar even more completely than the months of travel and the years of retirement.
Trying to centre and re-align now. Saturday it is! Happy weekend to you! xo
I love that you have taken my Saturday, what, focus? obxession? discipline? all of the above? to heart. Thank you. If you haven’t gotten crabs yet maybe up there, as down here, the season for Dungeness just began. Did I know this a month ago? I did not!
Also had to go off and do some research, because that is SO not the way we fish for crabs up the coast. . . I was very dubious about the rod you’re wielding, but found a youtube video that explains what’s the what in California. (we drop crab pots/traps to the bottom and they wander in to eat the bait. . . ;-)
I applaud your pursuit of the delicious Dungeness. Catching is one thing, cleaning quite another. Good luck!
Thank you! I have not yet gotten to the cleaning part, cross your fingers for me:)
What a lovely post. Amy Sherald is magnificent — I also wish I could see the exhibition. Thank you so much for allowing us a glimpse, Lisa.
Best of luck and have fun on your future fishing trips! “Look around you before casting.” … Such an excellent maxim for all of life. I’m going to remember that.
Happy New Year and happy weekend!
You are very welcome. Magnificent is the perfect word. Happy New Year to you!
Love the Amy Sherald pictures. Can’t resist telling you that I knew when Dungeness crab season would start because it’s part of our local news reports.
But I am so glad you told me you know! I can imagine in some communities it’s huge news!
I would so love to see the Amy Sherald exhibition. Her work is spectacular. Friends of my daughter’s go crabbing and fishing often, bring her the proceeds and she makes cioppino for them all.
Come on up here and I’ll go again? But I bet it will make its way to you eventually. I am now kind of amazed how many people go crabbing. I had no idea! Guess I’m going to have to learn to make cioppino or at least crab!
Thanks for sharing!
You are more than welcome !
Thank you for an inspiring post. How have I missed Hurston? And what a profound use of her powerful words.
You are welcome. There are so many brilliant women we didn’t get taught about, Black, white, all of us. Bit by bit we become visible. And the exhibit does a really good job with its text. What are those called?
I’ve always called them “placards,” “legends,” or “captions”, but apparently the official word is simply “label” (or “art label”). It does feel as if a better term should exist. Happy 2025, Lisa!
Happy 2025, Alex! And I have thought of them as legends too, but wasn’t sure if that’s right. I should ask my son, I bet he knows. If I remember I will!
Just spent Christmas in Maryland with family – a new place for our festivities. Crab was on the menu several days, but only one of us had to really “dig in” to get the meat. Being from Maine we were all familiar with how to do it. I have dug clams in Maine and Prince Edward Island – good luck with the crabbing.