A bit of a homage to Jan Tiura's current exhibition which is up at EBMUD in downtown Oakland March 5 through April 24, 2009. I attended the reception this evening; her current work is a series of photos of ships' hulls in closeup; the effect is abstract and surreal, and well worth seeing at EBMUD if you get the chance over the next few weeks. I originally stumbled over Jan's website while researching this image and this image (she drives both of these tugs, apparently), and keep going back to the site for more. In person, Jan's enthusiastic about the estuary for all the same sort of reasons I am: the busy working mixture of container vessels, tugs, bulkers, yachts, canoes, rowing eights and fours, sculls, etc. — see the boats category for some of what I see around me all the time down by the Estuary. I guess I'm a bit of a tug spotter at heart... (detail from an image taken December 2008).