clams

Clams are on my mind, and I’m a little frustrated that I cannot find much information about them online. An individual clam that made the news in 2006 has surfaced, however. Off the coast of Iceland, a clam was dredged whose shell indicated it was 507 years old, the oldest living creature on earth known to humans. (Each ring on a clam’s shell is reported to measure one year in time.) Scientists named the clam ‘Ming’ because its established birthdate of 1499 dates back to the ‘Ming Dynasty’ period of China. Ming is reported not to have survived the investigations of the scientists. However, the details are very limited. Perhaps if I dug longer, I’d learn how large was this creature. I’m curious about the circumstances under which it was removed from the ocean floor.

In the last year or so, I’ve seen old photos from the 1960s of certain species of clam harvested for food. Some were as wide as a foot, and looked to be bulging with life. The people who caught them did not seem proud or pleased but rather a little unsettled by their catch.

In the Old Testament, there is mention of the religious law directing that the Jewish people were not to eat shellfish. I don’t remember there to be an explanation.

I have an odd technique when painting or drawing whereby I do not decide in advance what I intend to create, but rather wait to see what shows up. In 2012, whales sometimes energetically emerged. In 2013, there were clams, although I’d not before experienced any special interest in them. In drawing them, I became interested in their existence, and wondered why they come forward in such a powerful way.