Tag Archives: Man at The Wheel

A tender-hearted honor to fishermen lost at sea 

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Gloucester honored her fishermen, wives, and families at the annual Gloucester Fisherman Memorial service at the Man of the Wheel statue, and then onto the Fishermen’s Wives Memorial statue to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the statue, which was built by Cape Ann sculptor Morgan Faulds Pike.

Hundreds of people gathered at the afternoon service to lay wreaths, listen to words of comfort from local dignitaries, commemorate the addition of names to the cenotaph, and think of their loved ones as they tossed flowers into the sea.

Gloucester was devastated this past winter at the loss of seven fishermen when on January 30th, the FV Lily Jean sank 30 miles off the coast. These are the names of the fishermen and (one) fisherwomen newly engraved on the cenotaph: 2015 Captain David R. Sullivan, 2020 Nicolo Vitale and Michael Porper, Jr., 2026 Captain Gus Sanfilippo, Paul Beal, and son Paul Beal, Jr., John Rousindis, Freeman Short, Sean Therrien, and Jada Samitt.

At both the memorial service at the Man of the Wheel statue and the rededication of the Fishermen’s Wives statue, Lilliana DiMercurio and Allesandro Schoc lifted their beautiful voices in song and music to honor the fishers and their families.

 

NO KINGS Gloucester Day of Defiance

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This event will be a walk from Stage Fort Park down to the Fishermen’s Wives Memorial. It will run from noon to 2pm. Gloucester residents with a 2025 beach parking sticker can park for free at the park, and parking is free on Stacy Blvd, but car pooling is encouraged as turn out is expected to be strong. In addition to the No Kings Theme, participants are encouraged to bring their American flags, as it is OUR flag and not the property of any political party.

There will be speakers at the memorial, including founder of CAI, Paul Saint-Amand, and Gloucester’s Mayor Verga, who will speak at 1:30.  A local choir will lead us in “Can you hear the people sing?”, among other protest songs, as we make our way down from a Stage Fort Park to the Memorial.

Sign up or just come!

FISHING BY MOONLIGHT

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https://www.instagram.com/p/B43GnscgeXy/

 

BEAUTIFUL SNOWY EVENING IN GLOUCESTER TOWN- with MAN AT THE WHEEL, DESTINOS, UU CHURCH, OUR LADY OF GOOD VOYAGE, ST. JOHN’S, AND MORE

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Beautiful…and slippery… stay safe 🙂

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtzQSUhnSn2/

A Whale of a Tail

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“Dive Deep Within” – Goetemann artist Deborah Redwood’s sculpture at the Paint Factory

Don’t you love the scale of Deborah’s piece? Much like Gloucester’s most beloved statues, the “Fishermen’s Wives Memorial,” “Man at the Wheel,” and “Joan of Arc,” “Dive Deep Within” is built to a very human scale and blends beautifully with the environment. “Dive Deep Within” is a statement, but does not try to compete with or dominate the surrounding landscape. Read more about Deborah’s piece here:

Deborah Redwood

and visit her website here: https://www.deborahredwood.com/

When I look at the subtle artistry of “Dive Deep Within,” I am reminded of the humungous abrasive metal sculpture that our community has been highly pressurized to accept, to not only find a suitable location for its installation, but to pay for its fabrication as well. One suggested site was the tiny narrow strip of green grass on the Rocky Neck causeway. When that location was wholeheartedly rejected, the next attempt was to locate the sculpture at the beautiful, but again very small, Solomon Jacob’s Park. This suggestion was especially nonsensical because the Solomon Jacob Park was specifically designed to be an open window to the working waterfront.

Monumentally large sculptures like that perhaps look best when sited in vast open spaces, a midwestern prairie or on a farm field; at a similar place where from the artist has made his home for most of his life, rather than Gloucester’s stunning waterfront.

Greatly appreciating the scale and intention of Deborah Redwood’s “Dive Deep Within”