"Gift from the Sea"

"Gift from the Sea" by Leslie Pearson
Interactive Sound Sculpture
Approx. 10" x 30" x 30", 2010
Hand dyed and screenprinted fabric, birdseed, wire, audio component











An excerpt from Gift from the Sea
by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach — waiting for a gift from the sea.

Perhaps this is the most important thing for me to take back from beach-living: simply the memory that each cycle of the tide is valid; each cycle of the wave is valid; each cycle of a relationship is valid. And my shells? I can sweep them all into my pocket. They are only there to remind me that the sea recedes and returns eternally.

The passage from Lindbergh's book is so poetic and ripe with metaphor. In Greek and Roman mythology shells were the mystic symbol of prosperity and regeneration and, in their association with the sea, the source of fertility.

As I wrestle with my own issues of infertility, it continues to come out in my work from time to time. It's in this light that I made these fabric sculptures and say to the Creator of the sea, haven't I been patient? Haven't I had faith? I know each cycle of the tide and each cycle of the wave is part of your plan. How long can I lie here, empty and open - waiting for a gift from the sea?


Listen to the embedded audio clip:

Photos by Justin Pearson Photography