This past week, I took the trek North to the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Though I became spiteful due to the length of the car ride, it all became worth it as I stood beneath the largest skeleton I’ve probably seen in my entire life. I was amazed at the sheer amount of “things” they could fit into a building that seemed so small from the outside. There were more ship models and harpoons than we even had time to look at, but what I think stuck with me the most from the trip was the Moby Dick inspired art exhibit that they kept hidden away in a discreet part of the museum. Walking through the room, all of our coffee driven discussions about the novel came rushing back to me.

The exhibit is called Martin & Moby, and all of the pieces within in were created by artist Peter Michael Martin. His work began two years ago when he attended a lecture by Dr. Robert Wallace on another art collection that was inspired by Moby Dick. Martin claims that the pieces by this artist inspired the him to create his own. While he read through the novel, he kept a journal of his thoughts and ideas regarding the text. Once he was finished reading, he set out to show the world how he interpreted Melville’s word through a visual medium using this journal as a guide. Martin’s pieces were created by enlarging images onto black paper or tyvek with a projector, redrawing his design on this paper using a white graphite pencil, cutting into the images using a blade or a scalpel, and then mounting the finished product of onto stretched white tyvek using a natural paste. If I were asked to, I would describe the pieces that I observed in this exhibit mainly to be “raw”. Martin stripped the novel down into the bare bones of its themes and values and laid them out for all to see. Here are a few of his creations:

“Ahab’s Dream“

Photo Credit: Brianna Resto

 “Witness“