Jane's take on the Spouter Inn

I recently attended presentation given by New York multi-dimensional artist Jane Freeman where she discussed dioramas she created for the Arrowhead Museum in Pittsfield MA (the museum of Herman Melville's home).  She presented two views of the Spouter Inn, as it is featured in Moby Dick.  She constructed these three-dimensional worlds from the descriptions provided in the novel.   You'll see that she was careful in presenting the scenes accurately, and also beautifully.

These descriptions below are from Jane's blog:

The dioramas were commissioned by the Arrowhead Museum in Pittsfield, MA.  The museum also asked Jane to create a replica of the room in which Melville wrote Moby Dick.  The photos of the model are by Jane, the photos of the actual rooms are courtesy of the museum. 

Jane's diorama of the room in which Herman Melville wrote his novel.

The actual rooms:

A few of Jane's nautical inspired paintings from her site, Jane Freeman Art:

Ventura Cabin

Two Ships, Spouting Whale 

 Whaling Triptych (Whale)

Whaling Triptych (Town) 

Away Aweigh

Two Ships, Spouting Whale

For more on Whaling:

White Whale

Physeter-Mcrocephalus

The Great White Whale

Keeping with the theme of the previous post, here are some dioramas of Moby Dick, the classic whaling novel of adventure, obsession, and revenge, written by Herman Melville (1819-1891) in 1851.  The book is a bit esoteric and was not well received at the time it was published.  It was only several years after the author's death (during the Melville Revival, starting around 1917) that it received its due recognition as being a masterpiece.


Diorama by Dan Thompson

click photos to enlarge

This diorama, built inside a light bulb, was made by someone calling himself Daydreamer 4.