Welcome to the Royal Caribbean Blog podcast, a weekly look into the world of Royal Caribbean cruising.

I'm your host Matt Hodgeberg, and this is episode number 112.

What makes Royal Caribbean cruise ships so beautiful and unique are the exquisite art collections you guys can find on board.

Each ship in Royal Caribbean's fleet has its own array of art that spans many eras and styles.

This week, we get the chance to talk to one artist that has contributed art across so

many of Royal Caribbean's mega-ships, American designer Larry Kirkland, Oasis of the Seas,

of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas, Voyager to the Seas, Splendor of the Seas, and many more

Caribbean ships all have had contributions by Mr. Kirkland on board, and it's a

unique and firsthand look at the creation of these signature designs that so many guests

have come to enjoy and photograph time and time again. Here we go. As part of our continuing

series, where we get the opportunity to meet some of the very talented folks that have had a hand in creating the Royal Caribbean Chips we've come to enjoy trip after trip, I'm pleased to welcome someone whose accomplishments working with Royal Caribbean over the years are truly impressive.

For over 18 years, Larry Kirkland has contributed works of art and design to Royal Caribbean

ships and cruise terminals such as Oasis of the seas, Voyager of the seas, navigator of the

seas, freedom of the seas, and even the Port Everglades Terminal 18. I'm so pleased to

welcome artist and sculptor Larry Kirkland to the Royal Caribbean blog podcast.

Happy to be here. Well, thank you very much, Larry, for taking the time to speak with me today.

I'm very excited to have you on here to talk with you.

And, you know, you have really a long and remarkable career working with Royal Caribbean.

But before we get to talk about some of your accomplishments and even some specific projects,

can you tell us a little bit about how you got started working on cruise ship art?

It seems like kind of a very niche kind of area.

Yeah, it was kind of a surprise to me as well.

...