Out of the Sea!

Sometimes I think about art as something more than a wall hanging just to glance at, or to complement a room. I think that art should have meaning or purpose.

Past generations dealt with illiteracy and used paintings and sculptures to tell the story. Understanding what the art was saying was important. The art needed to be “read” or studied carefully. Color, shading, symbolism, and the expression on faces helped make the message known.

Statue of Liberty, 2024, Wikipedia, CC

For example, the Statue of Liberty, just off the coast of New York City, rises up out of the sea, to speak to generations of Americans. She tells us a great deal about what our country values. For those who emigrated through New York, it stood for freedom, colossal freedom. Liberty’s sculptor, Bartholdi, studied colossal sculpture with size in mind. A Frenchman, Bartholdi formed the idea of a massive sculpture to be gifted to the United States by France, signifying their mutual friendship and recognizing the American centennial in 1886.

Years ago, we could climb up the twisting staircase inside Liberty, to peer out of her crown toward Europe. That diadem has seven rays, symbolizing the seven continents and the seven seas of earth to which the light of freedom extends. The sculpture holds a tablet, inscribed July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals. At her foot, a broken shackle and chains, remembering also the end of slavery.

Lifted high, a torch is held up by Liberty, for all to observe.

Art speaks. It brings to the eyes, the intangible, the unseen, making it tangible, understandable.

Recently, I began a new type of project, featuring fiber art (cloth, thread, yarn, etc..) to create a replication of the endangered Florida coral reef system. You can follow its progress on Instagram. Once again, my medium is 99% recyclable and repurposed. Trying a new technique, I made large sequins from plastic Pellegrino bottles for the sea turtle’s body!

Take a look at my work. What am I saying?

(C) KJadon, 2024

The Law and the Seahorse

Last week I spoke to a visitor to Jensen Beach. He and his wife were in Martin County looking for an affordable home on the water. They wanted to get out of Miami. At the time, we were in the Sand & Sea Boutique on the Indian River. I spoke up when I saw him looking at my seahorse creations.

A well-spoken man, he told me about his former profession—a shrimper in Biscayne Bay during the 1980s. As he netted shrimp, he’d also netted seahorses, pulling them up from their anchors in tropical waters. The shrimper said that if he’d thrown the seahorses back, they wouldn’t have survived, so he’d donated many of them to a local city aquarium.

The seahorses, he stated, were every color of the rainbow.

Biscayne Bay is a subtropical lagoon, a shallow with meadows of seagrass and corals, to the east of Miami. The north end of the bay is home to downtown Miami. The southern portion of the lagoon is a part of Biscayne National Park and is pretty much undeveloped. It’s about 35 miles long, heading south into the upper Florida Keys.

Three types of seahorses inhabit Biscayne Bay.

Seahorses caught in fishing nets dragged on the bottom of the lagoon, are known as “bycatch.” Trawl fishing is a danger to the creatures.

In 2018, Emilie Stump, a Project Seahorse artist and writer, wrote about the continued live-bait shrimping in Biscayne Bay. According to a 1997 University of Miami report, the trawls cause “substantial damage to potential seahorse holdfasts.” Seahorses use their lengthy tails to anchor themselves to these corals at the lagoon bottom. Dr. Joe Serafy published a survey in 1997 revealing that “roller-frame trawls are also known to catch at least eight species of seahorse or pipefish in Biscayne National Park as bycatch.” In addition, Dr. Julia Baum published research, estimating “72,000 lined seahorses per year” are bycatch from 31 trawlers off Hernando Beach, in the Gulf of Mexico.

It is important to recognize the dangers of trawling to seahorses because these creatures are the health marker of our coastal seas. If they are protected, our Florida waters will survive and thrive.

How do coastal waters retain their naturalness when more than 22 million and a half people live on its periphery?

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a law to create Biscayne National Monument in 1968. It was expanded in 1974, and again in 1980 when Congress created Biscayne National Park in 1980.

Yet the bait shrimp trawling was continued to be permitted in Biscayne Bay. Why?

In 1974, the Florida Legislature created the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve. In 1975, it created the Biscayne Bay-Cape Florida to Monroe County Line Aquatic Preserve.

The waters directly around the State of Florida belong to Florida, therefore, the responsibility of maintaining them, belongs to the State. Who is the State of Florida? Florida residents are. It is the responsibility of Florida residents to make sure that their coastal waters survive. Leaders are elected and put in place to accomplish these things.

The current Director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Division of Marine Fisheries Management is Jessica R. McCawley.

Shrimp trawling around the coastal waters of Florida continues to be permitted. Why?

Laws were necessary in the past to preserve large areas of coastal waters. Laws must be made and updated to protect coastal areas around Florida where seahorses live. They are the flagship of our waters’ health. As seahorses are protected, coastal seas will be preserved for future generations.

Dwarf Seahorse, KJadon, 2024, Available At Sand & Sea Boutique, Jensen Beach, FL

© Kelly Jadon, 2024

Seahorses A Marker for Indian River Lagoon Health

Seahorses are beautiful creatures of the shallows, both in Florida waters and around the world. Most often I use glass as my artist’s medium, as if to say of the seahorse, “fragile, handle with care,” or “look, but don’t touch.” But why have I chosen seahorses as a muse?

Most Floridians live near the coast. Our seahorses live in these coastal waters, just minutes from our homes. This includes the Indian River Lagoon, not far from my own house and art studio.

The Indian River Lagoon is a unique estuary of sealife. According to the EPA, it has national significance. A healthy Lagoon relates to healthy water, translating into healthy people and a healthy economy.

Locals have seen sharks, a variety of fishes, jellyfish, stingrays, an occasional sea turtle, and dolphins flipping by. The 156-mile-long Lagoon, this shallow area of brackish water, is part of a barrier island system covering about 40% of Florida’s east coast. The Indian River Lagoon belongs to the Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Brevard counties.

The Lagoon hosts mangroves, oyster beds, seagrasses, sandy areas, and salt marshes. In all, 3500 species of animals and plants live there.

Within this unique ecosystem live three types of Florida seahorses: the Dwarf Seahorse, the Lined Seahorse, and the Slender or Long-Snouted Seahorse. Native seahorse populations are a marker for Indian River Lagoon vitality.

Seahorses are vulnerable. As they decline, we can know that our Lagoon is declining as well. Threats to seahorses generally include coastal development and pollution.

Seahorses use seagrasses as their habitat. Typically, they’ll use their long tails to anchor themselves to the grass. With their long snouts, the creatures suction in tiny animals that live among the grass. No grass means no food for the seahorses.

Algal blooms have been a plague across the Indian River Lagoon. In 2015, the Florida Oceanographic Society reported that Florida’s estuaries, which included the Indian River Lagoon, was “one of the most endangered ecosystems on the planet.”

Seahorses also need to see to catch their prey, but when algal blooms block sunlight, their vision is blocked as well.

In 2018, environmental reporter, Tyler Treadway of Treasure Coast Newspapers (TCPalm for you online folks), published an article about the fragility of the Indian River Lagoon after Lake Okeechobee discharges. Locals reported that the seahorses had begun to disappear.

The most important thing that can be done to improve the Indian River Lagoon seahorse populations is to do what is necessary for healthy seagrasses.

Seahorses are precious. They are vital markers of the life of our waters. The Indian River Lagoon is in transition. It can either be left to falter as it has been doing because of irresponsibility or it can be responsibly supported.

Project Seahorse states “that if we can get it right with seahorses, it will help save coastal seas.”

Little things matter. If the Lagoon had been cleaned up in several ways, manatees and other sea life would not have succumbed to death by environment.

I have seen a seahorse pulled from the river just across from the House of Refuge. Will my grandchildren know the wonders of the water as I have? Will yours?

I urge you to consider the future of the Indian River Lagoon and make changes to protect our seahorses.

Geode and Glass Mosaic Seahorse--Resin, Glass, Geode; Kelly Jadon, 2024, Available at Sand & Sea Boutique, Jensen Beach

(C) 2024, Kelly Jadon

Florida Eco-Tourism: The Birds Have It!

The first neighbor announced today that the Ruby Throated Hummingbird has returned to her feeder!

Each year northerners “snowbirds” travel highways south to the Sunshine State to avoid the cold. The true birds also migrate south. A part of Florida’s eco-tourism relies on its beautiful birds. The hummingbird species is key, since they are such miniature delicate creatures and can be lured for closer viewing with nectar feeders.

Between 11 and 14 types of hummingbirds can be seen in Florida, the most common being the Ruby-Throated hummer. It is actually active in the state year-round.

Birding as eco-tourism is so popular that areas count species. Tampa Bay holds the record for most types and numbers of hummingbirds.

(C) Kelly Jadon, 2021

Palm City: Walk It

Each week I drive out to Palm City, Florida to see my mom and take her for a roll in her wheelchair outside between the grassy fields. The openness of the land, its greenery, the sun and wind around us, reminds me of being Up North.

We Florida transplants hail from Michigan’s countryside of dirt roads, wild asparagus, and cornfields, and the strong smell of cow manure ripe in the breeze along Green Road in Goodrich.

We were always outside. It was a place of play, work, and imagination. Today, the whispering winds of Palm City bring a calmness and peace that can’t even be touched in town.

To really see the great beauty of nature, one must walk in it, not drive. Life must be slowed down and enjoyed. That’s how we see the little things of great beauty—especially, the hummingbird.

I bend over toward Mom’s ear and ask, “Do you want to go back?”

“No,” she always answers.

(C) Kelly Jadon; “Hummers in Flight” 2021 $1800

Florida Blue Heron

When I first came to Florida I lived in Pasco County, on the Gulf of Mexico. Moving to Florida from Michigan is a bit like arriving as an immigrant in a foreign country. Many things are different.

About a mile or so out into the Gulf I observed houses, built up above the water on stilts. Pilings were sunk in place during the early 1900s. They were temporary houses of refuge from frequent rainstorms or a place to hold the catch. To a Northerner, they are similar to the ice fishing shanty out on the frozen lake.

Privately owned and grandfathered in as permissible buildings, they are handed down from one generation to the next. Unique treasures, permits are no longer allowed for more stilt homes.

The Florida Blue Heron too has long stilt-like legs lifting his body up high above the water, keeping him dry. His long neck reaches deeply to suddenly spear fish and baby gators with his spike-like beak. He often stands alone along the shallows in my backyard, just as the house on stilts upon the Gulf waters.

(C) Kelly Jadon, An Ekphrastic Blog