Anyone visiting the Artists Cooperative Gallery in Westerly, R.I., during the month of August might come away with an increased appetite now that the walls are lined with dozens of prints of all kinds of fresh and saltwater fish.
Formally called gyotaku (ghee-oh-tah-koo), the prints are the work of North Stonington artist and fisherman Jack Brown, whose exhibition officially opened Aug. 6.
Gyotaku, which originated in Japan and translates as “fish rubbing,” is the 200-year-old art of making prints of fish. Commonly practiced among Japanese fishermen to document the “trophy fish” they catch, the prints are made by carefully applying sumi-e ink to a cleaned and prepared fish. With the fish ready, rice paper is then cut to size. Using a rubbing tool and their hands, the artist very slowly and deliberately presses the fish against the entire inked surface, creating an amazingly life-like image of the fish.
“The action is careful and deliberate, paying close attention to the fish’s contour, fins, and most importantly the details of the head,” Brown explained. “It’s very, very trying. First of all we are happy to even get one rubbing that looks nice. After that we try for a second and third and try to get our way up to six pretty good rubbings.”
Brown continued, “Every one of the fins has to be propped up, every one of the fins has to be held open, it has to be blotted and the mouth has to be open. Every fish goes to the inking table for each rubbing attempt and then over to the rubbing table, and you have to secure paper and make sure it doesn’t get smudged...It really is a time-consuming process.”
Brown first learned this art form while he was living in Japan and he has continued to perfect his techniques over the past 25 years. He estimates that he has made rubbings and prints of more than 50 species of fresh and saltwater fish. Yet even given his experience and avid fishing skills, Brown said there are still plenty of fish he’s never printed that he’d love to—two he’s currently seeking are the ladyfish and the triggerfish.
Brown also explained that while he has caught many of his specimens, he isn’t shy about asking for help from the local fishermen down at the Stonington docks, where he goes to acquire most of his saltwater and offshore fish.
Brown’s collection, known as the “Kecheneny Fish Print Collection,” has been shown in many fishing shows and competitions in New England, and even hangs on the walls of local restaurants such as Jamms and Go Fish in Mystic.
For anyone wondering what happens to all these fish, Brown promises that none of them ever go to waste and usually find their way into his frying pan after they’ve been printed. In fact, even the small inedible fish find a purpose.
“A lot of times I will get fish that are not edible like shad, and fish like that, but all those fish I don’t throw out,” Brown said. “I put them in the freezer and I give them to a friend of mine who has some lobster pots and he goes out and he uses them for lobster bait; every now and then I come home and there’s a cooler sitting there in front of my garage and there are lobsters in it.”
For more information or to order prints, visit Brown’s Web site at www.kechenenyfishprints.com or visit the Artists Cooperative Gallery in Westerly Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.