Artwork Honors Fishing Industry

Commercial fishermen who have lost their lives while working the Santa Barbara Channel will be commemorated in a new memorial to be unveiled today at Ventura Harbor.

A 12-foot-high ceramic archway depicting four life-size fishermen working the seas will be dedicated at 10 a.m. in the Harbor Village. The three-dimensional artwork is located on a pedestrian walkway between Andria’s Seafood and Milano’s Italian restaurant.

The sculpture, which is inscribed with the names of eight fishermen who died off the Ventura County coast, was conceived by artist Michel Petersen as a way to honor the sacrifice of the fishing crews that provide fresh catch out of Ventura Harbor.

“They quietly suffer,” she said of commercial fishing crews. “And yet they generate $28 million for this state. They need to be championed.”

Petersen, 49, who works under the name Michellino, said she has long admired the hard work of fishermen. She has gotten to know many of them during her seven-year tenure as the harbor’s resident artist, she said.

During that time, she has installed 28 ceramic sculptures depicting turtles, otters, dolphins and other sea life. The memorial arch is her masterwork and the final piece before she departs next week for a new adventure in China, she said.

The four fisherman depicted on the archway are workers on local boats who volunteered to be cast in plaster. The models were Lee Lambert, Kip Whited and Mike Moberg, all of Ventura, and Bernie Booye of Oxnard.

Three of the fishermen were present during a recent visit and said they had experienced their own close calls at sea. A rogue wave or a misplaced foot could easily send a crew member overboard, the fishermen said.

“They call us the last of the great hunters and gatherers,” said Booye, 54. “We are searching for catch in an unpredictable environment.”

It took four years to carry the project from concept to completion, Petersen said. The sculpture cost about $130,000 to construct and install, with most of the money coming from harbor businesses, fishermen and individuals.

Petersen also got support from the Ventura Port District, the city of Ventura, the Ventura County Commercial Fishermen’s Assn. and the Ventura Harbor Community Council.

Petersen, whose small studio and living quarters are at Harbor Village, volunteered her services. She wanted a large and colorful work that would draw interest, she said.

“My artwork is for ordinary people,” she said.

Donors’ names are inscribed on colorful tiles that cover the memorial’s columns. The eight names on the memorial were provided by the fisherman’s association, based on records going back to about 1980, Petersen said.

More names may be added as they are discovered, she said.

Commercial fishing has historically ranked among the most dangerous occupations.

People engaged in commercial fishing face a risk of work-related injury 20 to 30 times greater than the risk for all occupations, labor statistics show.

About half of the deaths involve sinking, capsizing or collisions, while falls from ships, drownings and exposure make up the rest.

Next week, Petersen will travel to China, where she will serve as a visiting scholar at the Jingdezhen Institute of Ceramics.

She will study that country’s expertise in creating light porcelain sculpture, she said.