First a Hook, Then Ink: An Artist's Catch
This is a fish story: a whopper (or at least a keeper) about a peculiar intersection of nature, art and food. Annie Sessler, an artist living here on the East End of Long Island, makes fish prints – impressions of sea life, mostly on vintage textiles, for which she uses fish themselves like rubber stamps or wood blocks. The prints, made with a process dating to the 19th century, are lovely, often haunting images. To whatever extent a fish can be said to have a personality, Ms. Sessler has a gift for capturing and honoring it.
But before inspiration can strike, the fish must. And that’s where Ms. Sessler’s husband, a longtime fisherman named Jim Goldberg, comes in. It’s an elegant hunter-gatherer arrangement: he catches the fish; she prints the fish; then, together, they eat the fish.
“I’m not like other wives who sit at home, waiting for jewelry,” she said. “When Jim comes home, I’m like, ‘What fish did you bring me?’”
Early one misty summer morning, Mr. Goldberg, who is 57, sun-blasted and wiry, headed out into Montauk’s harbor in a small borrowed boat. Baiting his hook with strips of squid, he puttered a few hundred yards toward the mouth of the harbor, dropped his line and let the incoming tide carry the boat back toward the dock.