Towards the end of March as Mary and I were winding up a month long trip in Florida by visiting our daughter attending college in Sarasota our life size and life like paper pulp version of a nurse shark disappeared. Our trailer was parked in a hotel parking lot over night when it was broken into. Not everything was taken, and thankfully not the most expensive thing being our stationary bike and blender. But items items of various value including a bag of favorite clothes and sandals we stowed believing they would not be missed for the remainder of the trip. And we lost our telescopic ladder for the roof top tent which meant no more camping until we can replace it.
But the first thing I noticed missing, because it was perched on top of a pile of stuff, was the 4 foot nurse shark and the one thing I regarded as irreplaceable. Now it is lurking somewhere in the South Florida under world. Will it ever resurface someday? Perhaps someone buys it at a flea market having no idea where it came from. I never did sign it. I did not actually consider it finished thinking some day I might add details like the intricate little knobby denticles to cover its body. Maybe some day I will walk into a bar in Tampa or somewhere and see it on display.
I made it several years ago as one of the first large scale paper pulp sculptures. It was the centerpiece of our coral reef display at our old store and as we started doing paper pulp demonstrations it would guard starfish as they dried.
I hate to think it has already been hauled off to a landfill, or discarded under an overpass. I do hope it is still out there evoking emotions of wonder, about the ocean, about the creatures alive in the sea, or even about how this particular creation come to be. I hope that it continues to be valued, regardless what kind of pirate befalls it’s possession.
