Accepted for Publication: Rockfish and Delphiniums

Susan Slocum Dyer ©

It may look like you are seeing double as this is the painting I use for the header of my blog, but you’re not. Yesterday afternoon this painting, “Rockfish and Delphiniums”  was accepted for publication in Volume 3 of the Alaska Young Fishermen’s Almanac being published this Fall. I received the email below confirming the acceptance:

In coastal arctic Alaska villages the statement, "The ocean is our garden," is often spoken and heard. It speaks to the ocean being their primary food source. After hearing it said for a handful of years,  I asked myself, "If the ocean is our garden, where are the flowers?"  I decided to “plant” them and watch them grow within my painter’s mind and with my palette. 

I chose delphiniums as their name sounds like dolphins, which includes narwhals and beluga whales.  I painted an ocean garden with these flowers, kelp, other sea botany and rockfish. Collectively, the colors compliment each other, just like those in a landscaped garden, as they sway and swim within the body of the ocean.

This will be my second painting accepted for their publication. My painting, “Song of Salmon” was published in Volume 2. I remember emailing them asking how young you had to be to submit work to a young fishermen’s almanac. They wrote back a brilliant reply, “Alaskans are forever young, Susan.” They accepted my painting. 

The picture below is of me over the moon happy to be holding my artist’s copy of Volume 2. It was sent to my school address in Dillingham, Alaska where I was teaching kindergarten. An office staff member placed it in my staff mailbox when it arrived. I walked by to use the copy machine, saw it, hurriedly unwrapped it and then turned to a teacher nearby to have them snap a photo of me joyously holding the journal in my hand. Such great memories! 

I will have to do the same when Volume 3 is published in the Fall of 2024. This is my 3rd painting accepted for publication this year. As it’s only June, I am hoping for at least one more. I have so many ideas to paint. Now, to paint them.

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