It is the Cephalopodmas Season, when tentacles and the deep sea are on everyone's mind, and that concentrated contemplation of all matters squidly must occasionally erupt into artful self-expression. Below the fold you will find a few beautiful images that have leapt into my mailbox lately.
We begin with the mysterious case of John Holbo. Last year, he began his descent into madness with a series of greeting cards featuring siphonophorans; the obsession deepened with the creation of a book, Squid and Owl that, despite a little avian sidetracking, represents an investment in molluscan thinking; and now he has published a strange mash-up of Victorian greeting cards, Haeckel, and Cthulhu, which he calls "squeampunk". I approve. I only worry that someday he will develop gills and a curiously boneless posture, and disappear into the dark cold sea. Has Belle noticed if he is getting a bit…squamous?
Tood Freeman and Meg Perec have created an art installation called Sixty Foot Ghost, which features a giant print of Architeuthis dux. They are in Grand Rapids, MI, which I visited not long ago. Did I infect the area?
The cephalopod must be feared, and can be a symbol of terror. I think the bear and the bicycle are superfluous, but still, wearing this t-shirt of a squid on a bear riding a bicycle would be an excellent way to let the world know you are both bad-ass and a little weird.
Continuing the theme of cephalopods as instruments of destruction, Keith Noordzy has an exhibit of his art. I'm looking at that and thinking it would make a cool tattoo. One that was placed somewhere visible while I'm wearing a squid on a bear riding a bicycle t-shirt.
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That should be a lot weird.
WANT!
yeeeeee-haw!!!!
I do like the squids riding torpedoes.
Okay, in the spirit of squid riding bears riding bicycles, how about Slim Pickins riding a squid riding a torpedo 'a la Dr. Strangelove? Now that's, something I'd like to see on a T-shirt!
Not exactly art, but in And Another Thing… by Eoin Colfer, the (new) part 6 of 3 of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, there's an interview with Cthulhu. It's a bit short and it doesn't look like he gets to eat anybody, but he does promise to create a mountain of skulls.
Looks like someone has decided to up the ante for what counts as the most dangerous game.
Presumably this is too cutesy for your taste.
The torpedo squit reminds me a little too much of torpedoes manned by humans - and I do hope squid are too intelligent to let themselves be blown up in this fashion.
Excellent selection. I would like to have a buy option for those T-shirts, preferably with free international shipping, via squid-claus.
torpedo squid is now on my office wall. I can't wait for some one to walk in and say, in their ignorant southern drawl, ugh ugh what the hell is that. And I'll get to say, well WTF does it look like.
hehehe this will be good!
People, people, people!
Can we please not be so racist phylumist that we think all Cephalopoda look alike?
The cephalopod riding the torpedo is not a squid, but is rather an octopus. Octopus, people! This is not rocket science !!
And for CephalArt, I still think that this is pretty cool --
The Octopus and the Silver Cello:
This is beautiful, Owlmirror! I love the narwhal tusk at the base of the bass!
Owlmirror, sorry, I knew it was an octopus. I just liked the sound of torpedo squid. sounds cool.
Owlmirror: That's fully awesome.
Erika Moen has been making potted tentacles and octopuses for folks interested in hand-crafted presents for their cephalopod-loving friends and relations:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikamoen/4175206281/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikamoen/4176041206/
Also, my own octopus art:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3568/3492775961_5330eb48d7.jpg