Friends! Are any of you in Okla­homa? Or do you have extend­ed com­mu­ni­ties that reach into the Soon­er State?

If so, please don’t miss the chance to check out FISH, a mul­ti­me­dia art exhi­bi­tion pre­sent­ed by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Okla­homa School of Art & Art His­to­ry and the Light­well Gallery. The exhi­bi­tion will be open from Tues­day, Octo­ber 23 through Wednes­day, Novem­ber 7. (Vis­it UOSAA for more location/time details.)

What’s the con­nec­tion between a land­locked uni­ver­si­ty and an exam­i­na­tion of glob­al fish­eries? With their rich farm­ing his­to­ry, Okla­homans know about the long, ardu­ous road of get­ting food from its point of ori­gin to peo­ple. So do fish­er­men. Cura­tor Cedar Marie took a “stream to plate” approach with FISH, invit­ing view­ers to “con­sid­er how we tend to our rela­tion­ships with the food we grow, har­vest, and con­sume,” while also shin­ing a light on one of our planet’s most dimin­ish­ing food sources.

Long­time read­ers may recall this summer’s call for sub­mis­sions. Thanks to an enthu­si­as­tic response, FISH presents “a com­pelling range of per­spec­tives on the cul­ture of fish­ing. Inter­pret­ed broad­ly, the art­works in the exhi­bi­tion include sculp­ture, paint­ing, video, and good old-fash­ioned sto­ry­telling, among oth­er media, from both U.S. and inter­na­tion­al artists.” That range of fish-relat­ed per­spec­tives includes water man­age­ment, environmental/habitat con­cerns, his­tor­i­cal depic­tions, sus­tain­abil­i­ty, gen­der, safe­ty, com­mu­ni­ty aware­ness, and education.

(You’ll see some of Hooked favorite people/groups exhib­it­ed in FISH: Fish­er Poet/Xtra Tuf ‘zine author Moe Bow­stern, the Sit­ka Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety’s Fish to Schools pro­gram, Rebec­ca Poul­son, and Cap’n J. View a com­plete list of artists.)

I have to tell you, I seri­ous­ly con­sid­ered hop­ping on a Grey­hound to be able to stroll through this show. Stud­ied the cal­en­dar and every­thing, but it wasn’t meant to be this time. So, sweet­ies, if any of you are in the Nor­man, Okla­homa, vicin­i­ty, I’d love to hear your report. And if you’re in the area AND you’re free at 10:30 a.m. on Tues­day, Octo­ber 30, give your­self a treat and attend the leg­endary Ray Troll’s pub­lic lecture.

FISH’s cura­to­r­i­al state­ment says this: “Vis­it­ing Guggen­heim Fel­low­ship artist Ray Troll’s quirky images based on the lat­est sci­en­tif­ic dis­cov­er­ies bring a street-smart sen­si­bil­i­ty to the worlds of ichthy­ol­o­gy and pale­on­tol­ogy. His draw­ings and paint­ings are also a delight­ful com­men­tary on the fishy behav­ior of humans.” That’s all spot-on. Ray is an Alaskan icon, for­ev­er immor­tal­ized as the artist behind “Spawn Till You Die.”

(Ray’s also to be cred­it­ed for keep­ing Joel and I clothed. We recent­ly fig­ured about 80% of our T‑shirts and hood­ies are Troll-isms. Case in point: writ­ing this, I’m wear­ing his salmon yin-yang sweat­shirt. The man’s cor­nered the mar­ket for the South­east Alaskan uniform.)

As much as I’m a fan of FISH’s artists, it’s the sto­ry that real­ly gets me. On the heels of World Food Day, FISH pro­motes a crit­i­cal mes­sage of being con­nect­ed to our food sources. As a fish­er­man, I’m grate­ful for all of the time, labor, and pas­sion that Cedar Marie has devot­ed to our indus­try and our sto­ries. Many thanks, Cedar, and big con­grat­u­la­tions on see­ing your vision to fruition. I’ll be cheer­ing FISH from afar, hop­ing that some of Hooked’s friends will share their impres­sions with us.