Jack Merrill, poet, painter… and lobsterman
If one were to attend a recent Mount Desert Island school sporting event, then attend an art exhibit reception at the Northeast Harbor Library and buy some lobster for dinner right off the fisherman’s boat, they might be convinced that the coach at that game, the painter and the lobsterman were all a part of a set of triplets. And when an identical guy showed up at a poetry read to recite his own works, you might up the ante and think you’d had a close encounter with a rare brace of quadruplets. But no, Jack Merrill, lobsterman, coach, artist and poet is just one man; albeit a man with a multitude of talents and interests that, at age 70-something, still keep him busy on a daily basis. Perhaps there is something about watching a lavender-rose sunrise and a blazing gold and scarlet sunset spread over a mackerel sky and a wine dark sea almost every workday that inspires some of our local fisherman to paint and poeticize, because, as Merrill rightly insists, he is not unique. He points out that several Cranberry Isles fishermen are also accomplished artists, including Rick and Corey Alley and Dan Fernald and, of course, island author and fisherman Trevor Corson, who included Merrill in his book, “The Secret Life of Lobsters.” more, >>click to read<< 07:08
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