Testimonials

Please take a moment to read a few of the testimonials we have recieved, as well as articles that have been written about Fish Aye Trading Company

Cape Cod Life Magazine, May 2008

The Good Things in Life, Must-have Articles, Accessories & Products: Fishing Around

John Doherty of West Harwich looks at fish as conservationist, artist, and diner. He catches fish, makes artistic rubbings of them, then grills the fish filets for dinner. His fish rubbings with Chinese characters, such as the scup pictured here, are a study in natural art.

Wellington School - Belmont, MA
"Kindergarten After School Program"

Dear Mr. Doherty,

I thank you again for helping us with our fish printing. It was wonderful fun. We actually spent three days doing t-shirts. It was useful to learn about using clay and pins. We all feel much more confident doing the shirts now. Thank you again for coming to our aid and being so generous with your time and your fish. See you in September and welcome to K.E.D."

-Louis Pollock

Hello John,

Thank you again for the striper print. It looked better than I had thought. The gentleman I presented it to was thrilled and amazed. Everything worked out great.

Very Truly,
Seth Lemoine

Excerpt from Belmont Citizen-Herald on TOWNONLINE.com
Wednesday, March 21, 2007

John Doherty has a normal basement on Myrtle Street. There’s exercise equipment and a playroom for his two young daughters, a laundry room and stairs a little too small to accommodate his tall frame.

And off in the corner is a little table covered in burlap, where Doherty carefully strokes brilliant pink paint onto a dead snapper supported by lumps of his daughter’s orange Play-Dough.

Doherty discovered the ancient Japanese art of gyotaku, or fish rubbing, by accident about 15 years ago. He grew up spending summers at his grandfather’s house on Cape Cod, fishing the Atlantic for dinner for his many relatives.

Last summer he found the ink impressions he made that summer evening and decided to give it another go.

“I’ve always enjoyed being creative with my hands, but never really found something I thought I was good at,” he said.

In the past few months he has explored different mediums, settling on guache, a type of opaque watercolor, and muslin fabric. He strokes the paint onto the fish, avoiding the eye “because it gets all mushy.” He drapes the muslin over the colorful fish and rubs the fabric to transfer the paint.

“The first time is never a keeper,” he said of the occasionally tedious process.

It can take hours of painting, rubbing and repainting to make something he is proud of. The repetition is part of the fun, though.

“I enjoy taking the time to really look at how a creature is formed. I follow the fish’s own color pattern and the pattern of the scales, and creativity can develop,” he said.

When he is happy with a final print, he mounts the fabric on a frame to dry. A Chinese character appears on each finished rubbing, a product of the experience of catching the fish or making the art.

“If I caught it early in the morning, I might put the character for ‘sunrise’ on it. If it’s a print of a crab, maybe the character for ‘spirit’ because crabs are spirited,” he said.

Doherty has a workspace set up in the family’s barn in Harwich and another in the basement of his Myrtle Street house. Originally, he said, he intended only to paint the fish he caught. Then he would either rinse them off and eat them, or cast them back into the river for other animals to eat.

“Then I realized that there weren’t a lot of fish to be caught in winter in Belmont and started visiting the docks in Boston,” he said.

Doherty has painted about 30 different New England species, including octopi, squid, eels, crabs and sand dollars. He took some of his supplies on a recent trip to Puerto Rico to make rubbings of the fish in warmer waters.

He learned the history of gyotaku as he explored his own art. It began thousands of years ago in Asia as a way to document the size of fish caught. Then it evolved into an art form.

Doherty’s own art is currently on display at the Citizens Bank in Belmont Center, and several residents have already contacted him about purchasing prints.

The rubbings are available in a wide range of prices and sizes. Doherty sells both originals and prints of originals. They can be framed professionally, or with driftwood he finds on his beach walks. Small, unframed prints start at $40, and large, framed originals run up to $300. He recently launched a Web site, fishayetradingcompany.com, to facilitate purchases.

A woman called him recently and said she liked one of the prints displayed in the bank, but would like it in black. Doherty told her he would call her back in May if he catches another striper.

“At this stage I’m happy to do that. I want to keep it small, local and special,” he said about his fledgling business.

Doherty said he doesn’t like to push his art on people. He’s a little nervous about being known as an artist at all. But he is happy about the display at the bank. He sees it as an opportunity to hear comments from a wider audience than his family, and to learn from people who view his art.

The art and the exhibit are a departure from his successful insurance business, and that’s part of why he does it.

“It’s fun,” he said. “It’s an adventure.”

Excerpt from Harwich Oracle on TOWNONLINE.com
"Out of the clear blue water", Wednesday, June 25, 2007

Some artists specialize in oil paints, charcoal or clay. For John Doherty, it’s all about fish -- catching them, reeling them in and then painting them. His artistic strokes are placed on gills and scales, which create unique images from the sea.
“I like the fact that you don’t have to be fantastically delicate and you actually have to do it with some speed because the bigger the fish the faster the paint will dry,” Doherty said as he worked in his art studio/barn behind his home on Herring River in West Harwich.

Doherty paints the fish he catches from the waters around Monomoy Island and Nantucket. The actual painting takes about 20 minutes. Afterward, he serves them up for dinner or gives them away.

“I try to keep the colors natural and organic,” Doherty said as he brushed some sea green over his latest catch, adding, “As simplistic as it is, it did start out with a white sheet with nothing on it.”

The style of art is called gyotaku, and dates back to the mid 1800s in Japan. In Japanese, “gyo” translates to “fish” and “taku” to “rubbing.” Originally created so fisherman could record the size of thier catches, it eventually became an art style.
Doherty said he became inspired him to try his hand at fish rubbing about 10 years ago, as he spent a day fishing for blues.
“There was a bunch of them on the back of the boat and I picked one up and the image from the fish came off from the blood. I wondered if you could do that with paint,” Doherty said.

Working on muslin cloth or rice paper, Doherty said water-based paints work best because they’re easy to use and wash off. In addition to fish, Doherty paints lobsters, crabs -- even an octopus.

“Stripers are really good because you can really pull out the scales, they show up great,” Doherty said.

After applying a coat of paint, Doherty takes a sheet of muslin and gently applies it to the fish. Once the muslin is peeled away and left to dry, Doherty adds a signature Chinese symbol to each of his paintings. The symbols have different meanings, depending on the fish, with meanings such as spirit, sunrise, and flower, Doherty said.

“When I catch a fish I’ll put the symbol on it and it tells a little bit more about what I was thinking when I was doing it,” Doherty said.

Doherty is an insurance salesman, but he knows a thing or two about fish, having come from a family that enjoyed the sea. His father was in the Navy, and his grandfather worked on building the docks in Provincetown in the 1930s. His grandfather bought a home in Harwich, on Chase Street, in 1941, and built a dock on the Herring River. Doherty now spends his summers in that house. The rest of the year is spent in Natick.

After his first year selling his paintings online and in person, Doherty has had some success in shops around the Cape. Recently his work was seen at TD Banknorth in Harwich Port, Swan River Fish Market in Dennis, and Full Sale in Chatham. Available in a wide range of prices and sizes, a large original framed piece costs about $350. Unframed prints start $40. Doherty also makes some of his own frames from driftwood, and recently launched a website, fishayetradingcompany.com.

On Aug. 18, Doherty will hold a gallery showing of 50 paintings in his barn, located at 98 and 102 Chase Street. Ten percent of any sales will go to a local charity to benefit children and women, he said.

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