Sacred Cod 1940

John W. Kelleher made this painting called "Sacred Cod". Look at the way Kelleher has rendered this fish. It's got this lovely gradient of brown and gold hues, with these dark fins that punctuate the composition. You can almost feel the slickness of the fish's skin, the way the light might have glanced off it. You know, I bet Kelleher spent hours trying to capture the essence of that cod. Maybe he was thinking about its place in history, or the role it played in the economy, or maybe he just admired its form. It makes you wonder about the stories this fish could tell, gliding through the water. Painters are always borrowing from each other, riffing on ideas and techniques. There’s something so fundamentally human about wanting to capture a fleeting moment, a feeling, an idea, and share it with the world. And in that sharing, we create these amazing dialogues across time, inspiring each other to see things in new ways.