There she blows!

Champollion deciphered the wrinkled granite hieroglyphics. But there is no Champollion to decipher the Egypt of every man’s and every being’s face. Physiognomy, like every other human science, is but a passing fable. If then, Sir William Jones, who read in thirty languages, could not read the simplest peasant’s face in its profounder and more subtle meanings, how may unlettered Ishmael hope to read the awful Chaldee of the Sperm Whale’s brow? I but put that brow before you. Read it if you can.

from Moby Dick Chapter 79, The Prairie, by Herman Melville


For several weeks now I have been listening to a reading of Moby Dick to help me fall asleep. Spending time here always encourages a little creativity, and this time around a little maritime folk art inspired by the book seemed like appropriate subject matter.