With regret, I report the death of Spinnaker the dolphin who passed away at the Vancouver Aquarium last night. He was twenty-six years old.
Today's image represents a fair amount of frenzied digital painting. It's a near-duplicate of a photograph I took of my wife and the dolphin while at the Aquarium. The window is in an executive suite that looks into the dolphin pool. The dolphins know the difference between tourists and the truly interesting people. They will come up to this window and if they see somebody they like, they strike the haunting, eloquent pose that I depict in my artwork. It's the dolphin version of a human placing her hand on the glass, feeling the evolution that separates us. This is a powerful and moving moment to witness, and I feel privileged to have had my camera on hand. However, the light in the room is very low, the focus is hard to achieve, and the dolphin is tricky. I decided that I could best overcome the faults in the shot by painting the image for JSVB.
Here's to you, Spin, long may your big jib draw.
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