http://www.Dahni.com/Galleries/AboutTheEternalPort.htm

About the work: ‘The Eternal Port’

By Dahni

This work was inspired by the crew members and their families, of the WWII, U.S.S. MURPHY and the U.S.S QUINCY SAILORS ORGANIZATIONS. It is for them that this piece is humbly and lovingly dedicated. In this political year of 2008, many talk of Freedom, Hope & Change, but it is men and women like these, which have paid for them already, for all of us!

'The Eternal Port' comes from a famous photograph, which may well be my favorite image of all time.

Original photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt

VJ Day in Times Square on August 15, 1945 provided the opportunity for Eisenstaedt to photograph the image for which he is possibly most famous. "I saw a sailor running along the street grabbing any and every girl in sight." he explained. "Whether she was a grandmother, stout, thin, old, didn't make any difference. I was running ahead of him with my Leica (camera), looking back over my shoulder...Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse."

Eisenstaedt was very gratified and pleased with this enduring image. "People tell me that when I am in heaven they will remember this picture."

All things considered, August 13, 2005, New York City unveiled a life-sized statue in Times Square. It was based on this famous Life magazine photo of New Yorkers celebrating the end of the war with Japan on Aug. 14, 1945 (August 15, in Japan, a day ahead). The sculpture was erected by artist, Seward Johnson, Jr. Edith Shain, 86, the woman in the photo, poses next to Johnson’s sculpture, 'Unconditional Surrender.'

It's a tribute to the famous photo of Shain being kissed by a sailor on V-J Day, Aug. 14, 1945.

Since 2005 the event has been commemorated by an annual kiss in Times Square. The sculpture has temporarily been put on display on the anniversary in subsequent years, at the Times Square Information Center, near the site of the kiss.

Also in 2005, Johnson erected a 25-foot, 6,000 pound statue in Sarasota, Florida. It was loathed by Sarasota’s public art advisory committee. The statue was called tacky, unsafe (it was claimed that gawking motorists would cause traffic accidents), and immoral (a view that the artist had merely copied the photographer’s work). When the statue was dismantled in the Spring of 2006, an ugly rumor spread that it had been bought by a chain of Canadian pizzerias. Instead, it ended up in Tuna Harbor in downtown San Diego. The following year, the sculpture would stand next to the U.S.S. Midway Museum, fitting in comfortably, in a public park along the waterfront, near the aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Midway as backdrop.

“This sculpture represents hope and freedom,” said Quartermaster Seaman Hannah R. Salyer, PCU Green Bay (LPD-20). “It’s a classic symbol of a Sailor.”

“This photo and statue still moves me to this day,” said former USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) Sailor Arthur A. Kowalski. “It’s nice to know that people haven’t forgotten about that moment in history.”

By Day By Night Relative to Actual Size of People

‘Unconditional Surrender,’ owned by the Sculpture Foundation of Santa Monica, California, is on loan to the Port of San Diego. Where it goes next, who knows, but Sarasota wants it back. J

So it is from this history and various photographs, ‘The Eternal Port,’ became a watercolor piece and a poem by me, all made, especially for those of the U.S.S. MURPHY DD603 and the U.S.S. QUINCY CA71 SAILORS ORGANIZATIONS!