CRAB POT #2

Limited Edition print by Alaskan artist Tom Crestodina. Edition size: 500

Print size: 11 1/4" x 15"

This is a depiction of a king crab pot with a bunch of reds scrambling over one another to get at the bait. King crab are social animals and they tend to pile up. This drawing also features plants of other creatures of the deep, including pacific mackerel, halibut, various types of rockfish, sea stars, pacific cod, sablefish, herring, salmon, Atka mackerel, red jellyfish and smattering of salmon.

The lines are shown to demonstrate how pot fishermen use floating line on the pot to keep them from fouling on the bottom, and sinking lines on the buoy to keep them from fouling in propellers and logs.

Tom Crestodina, an Alaskan fisherman, began making cutaway drawings in 2011 to connect with his young son, Franio, while he was out at sea. " I missed my family so much it was like physical pain. Making these drawings was my way of  reaching out to my little boy."

Tom's drawings are intended to educate and amuse. In part, they are made so that seafarers can hang them on their wall and use them to explain their work to aunts and uncles from far away places. Some are diagrams that explain fishing methods and other aspects of the maritime trades. Many of them contain inside jokes for fishermen and sailors. Some contain silly jokes for kids.