Spawning Grounds by Apayuq; An Analysis

Spawning Grounds 

artist Apayuq Moore, 2008, Dillingham, Alaska

This is an acrylic painting on canvas that my cousin finished in 2008.  She is an artist living in SW Alaska, this and other works can be seen here.  Apayuq

 

My wife has a print of that painting in the dining area of our house.  Prior to this class, being the shallow person that I am, I never gave it much thought.  It to me just represented an event I have witnessed in person several times throughout my youth on Togiak Lake.  It's red salmon (referred to as sockeye by those making more money on them than I was commercial fishing) in their spawning attire, nearing the end of their long journey.  They're making the last dash to their intended spawning grounds where they will spill their roe and milt in a shuddering climax that culminates a years long cycle where they journeyed from that very spot as a smelt, down the river, dodging ravenous rainbows, carnivorous pike, to the ocean where they had to survive whales, seals, sea lions, trawlers, commercial fisherman, then back up the river escaping bears, sport fisherman, to at last return to where they were laid as an egg years ago to repeat the cycle.  After the act, they will remain in the area protecting the bed for as long as their strength holds out, or until some predator catches them, whichever comes first.  When their strength eventually fails them and they can no longer tread water, they will be washed down river, rotting alive, returning the nutrients held in their body to the river.  Their flesh will nourish everything.  It's fertilizer for the forest, sustenance for resident fish like char and rainbows and grayling, larger predators like bear, fox, wolf, raptors.  Everything flourishes on salmon. 

 

Elements of Art 

 

 Line.  This is a panting of Nature, and very few things in Nature are linear.  But that is representative of the salmon's journey.  Though you can find straightaways in rivers on occasion, they're usually full of curves and switchbacks.  Their are two distinct lines in this painting; the stretches of river leading towards and away from the group of salmon, creating an L shape.  That corner appears to the hard spot between two easier stretches of river.

Tone.  Notice the "closer" a salmon is, the more sharp the colors, and the further it is the more faded they are, to give us the perception of depth and distance of the fish.  Tone manipulated on the bodies of the fish and in front of the trees to show the shadows from the trees and the different shades of red displayed on the bodies of salmon; they will be brighter on the back and darker on the belly.

 

 Texture.  The fish appear smooth, as they are in real life, to better allow them to skitter through the water, and over the shallows such as depicted in the dog leg of the river where the fish are concentrated.  The rocks on the inside corner are smooth river rocks, having been tumbled down river through the ages.  But there remains a jagged boulder, the light and dark tones coming together at the point displaying a "can opener" that could tear open a boat. 

 

What it Represents to Me

 

Having described this painting it's plain now, even to me, that it represents a great deal more than a handful of spawning salmon in their spawning stream, fighting their way through the shallows to procreate.  They represent the success of their species.  Their very existence is a testament to the determination of maybe a million prior generations.  But the fact that they exist is not just an example of their own tenacity, it's also a demonstration of how Humanity can conserve great things when we decide to do so.  If we can keep from damming every river, from mining every creek, and putting concrete jungles in place of every forest, we can save salmon, and the species will continue to support us and Nature in perpetuity.  We just need to absorb some of their hardheadedness and apply it in the right places.  

 

It's also something that we can apply in our own day to day personal lives.  That salmon didn't go from being an egg weighing a fraction of a gram to a six pound (ten in Togiak, the Nushagak and Copper River reds are small) greenhead over night.  It took years of unyielding determination, trillions and trillions of tail swishes, day after day, for years, for this cycle to play out.  If I could take just take a fraction of that obstinance and apply it to my own life it would be better.  If I just took a few minutes to put the clothes away, if I took a minute every day to clean something, a few minutes every day to lift weights and do cardiovascular exercise, 10 minutes every day on yard work, life would be better.  Eventually I'll have a nice yard, and if I keep exercising I'll be able to run my grandbabies down just like I did their parents.  "Just keep swimming.  Just keep swimming."      

 

Moore, Apayuq. “Acrylic on Canvas.” Inspired by Bristol Bay, www.apayuq.com/acrylic-paintings.html. Accessed 5 June 2023.

Stanton, Andrew, director. Finding Nemo. Buena Vista Home Entertainment, 2004.