Chomper

Smokey and I road up to McClellanville, SC this afternoon to see this work of art created by our friend, Ed Byrd. Ed, a retired surgeon from the D.C. area, went back to school at the College of Charleston to get an art degree. One of his projects while he was there was to create this larger-than-life sharp made from paper-mache and fiberglass. It was on exhibition for a while and then he sort of lost track of it. Recently, he and his wife Ellen saw it outside of a seafood store near McClellanville, talked to the owner of the shop and then spent weeks restoring it to its former beauty--only greatly enhanced. They even talked with a metal fabricator and were able to add mean-looking sharp teeth and added an additional jaws-like touch by having a leg sticking out of its mouth (you can see Ellen holding on to it!) Another feature of this creation is the eyes. When I asked Ed where he got them, he said he ordered the largest fake eyes available from a taxidermist. They're really kind of incredible. After Ed and Ellen completed the refurbishing of the Shark (which is now named Chomper), the owner of the seafood store invited them to have a reception there to celebrate Chomper's new life. And what a wonderfully cool, bug-free afternoon it was. I'm sure that many of the cars buzzing past us on Hwy. 17 wondered just what all the fuss was about. Well, it was about celebrating art and friendship. Pretty good, huh?