[News]: 9-legged octopus sculpture

[tonmo]

Here's a news article (sort of) regarding octopuses that one might find interesting...

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/...ctopus18.shtml

I think by "Robert Anderson" they meant, "Roland Anderson".

[lithographette]

You would think tha the folks at the aquarium would want an accurate representation of an octopus anyway! Heck, I'll make them a sculpture with eight legs for a fraction of the price this lawsuit is gonna cost them.

[Tintenfisch]

LOL, nonapus! (That's the kind of ceph that takes good care of your kids while you're out... )

Here we go :)

[TaningiaDanae]

I dunno, that's an awfully elongated body for an octopus. Are they sure it isn't a sculpture of a squid with one tentacle missing?

[Melbe]

"seeking removal of the offending mollusk"
I think that is funny. I dunno why, but offending mollusk is particularly humorous to me.

[Melbe]

"seeking removal of the offending mollusk"
I think that is funny. I dunno why, but offending mollusk is particularly humorous to me.

[TaningiaDanae]

"seeking removal of the offending mollusk"
I think that is funny. I dunno why, but offending mollusk is particularly humorous to me.

Matter of fact, Mel, the FBI has an Offending Mollusk Division with a database of suckerprints from known mollusk offenders. Last I heard, they were putting out a massive dragnet for Public Anemone Number One....

[Steve O'Shea]

Hate to bore with a spot of fact, but, although unusual, I have recieved 7- and 9-armed octopuses in the past (they are rare, but these things do happen). The most interesting ones are, however, those in which the arm bifurcates/trifurcates (this is more common, particularly in NZ species of Benthoctopus [for some reason]). There's an old photograph in a Sasaki monograph (1929 I think - a splendid piece of work!!!!) on Japanese octopuses in which one species is photographed with each of the animals 8 arms branching 'a trillion times' , rendering it superficially similar to a basket starfish (euryalinid ophiuroid). I've never seen anything quite so spectacular myself .... one day maybe (probably in a cuddly toy variety).

I'm no art critic, but my 2 cents worth is that the piece is dull - quite uncreative (an octopus sitting atop a piece of rock); I've an octopus carved out of peat with more personality than that. Can't imagine any law suit being successful - have seen a squillion photographs of an octopus in this very position (those are the ones you don't use in a talk .... coz they all look the same). Maybe the sculptor/tress saw one of my pics?
O

[lithographette]

Your right Steve, we were being unfair in not recognizing the existence of differently abled Octopuses.
The sculpture may be a bit boring, but its public art, and thats what happens a lot with public art. Public art generally goes before a commitee made up, for the most part, of people with money and without taste, or with greatly varying tastes. All these people have to agree to fund something before it is even built ( for something like this, there was probably a model carved in wax or foam to show to the board) and because so many different opinions must agree, what happens is that the most boring ( and hence least offensive) artwork gets the funding. This world needs a modern Medici family to start funding some good stuff, or conversly, I would happily be the executor of some sort of public art trust. Hee hee!

[Steve O'Shea]

...... the concept of 'aggressive art' is certainly growing on me, but I'm not sure if being 6 weeks unshaven, smelling of crankshaft oil, and sculpting to the 'Flight of the bumble bee' would qualify someone to create an interesting octopus (at least the animal should have been raised off the plinth and been in the process of devouring some hapless fish, crab, crayfish, with a few raised arms here and there). 'Me thinks' that you, Lith, should get that octo/ceph portfolio together and start marketing ceph products to wealthy establishments; just imagine the potential in octopus meets Picasso/Braque - a sensational cubic tangle of writhing arms, suckers, eyes here and there, gnashing beaks ..... oh for a pencil (and 100hrs) right now.

...here's a thought. I'll 'award' a set of giant squid beaks to the person who designs/paints/sketchs the best rubic cube/cubism octopus on Tonmo (with Tonmo membership adjudicating the overall winner; no joke). Have we a challenge?
O

[lithographette]

Your on! My only limitation is lack of a computer ( I am a naughty employee who types here on the company dime ) I actually did a quite interesting Octo the other day, which was not really cubist, but based more on the pattern inherent in the shifting colorization and the strength of line created by the many arms. I'll see what I can do in de-constructing the octo and infusing it with the primitive elements of tribal art, oh, and gaining access to a scanner so y'all can see the results!

[Steve O'Shea]

Deconstructing Octopus would make for both interesting movie and painting titles. Shall we copyright the name?

[lithographette]

To me, Deconstructing Octopus sounds like a prog-rock band ( like King Crimson, for those of you unfamilair with the term) Its probably too late to copyright it - IMHO once a good idea is let out of the conciousness of one human, it infects the collective human sub-concious.
I sketched a bit (16 small sketches) on the theme, and found the following - either the entire page was filled with arm-like structures, or I reverted to minimalism with one or two massive arms. I also boiled the eye down to a simplified icon - if you were looking for an octopus you can find it, otherwise they were just craaaazy. Sort of fun. I am usually very concerned with the realistic representation of these animals, it was nice to just work from memory and see what stood out as defining characteristics.

[Steve O'Shea]

Ummmmmmmm, I feel like a twit and am only slowly catching up with this chat lingo .... but was on earth does this IMHO mean? I've seen it used a few times now.
Ta
O

[Tintenfisch]

In My Humble Opinion.

:)

[Steve O'Shea]

LOL - don't I feel like a twit!!

[Drea]

TWIT -- Thinking With Its Tentacles

(yeah, I know, they're arms) :?

[squidmaster]

Boy!How INKgenious to add an arm to avoid infringing on a copyrite law. Is that perhaps like copying a term paper and making one of the sentences a little longer Perhaps the artists lacked their own creativity and had to become admired vicariously. I think I have seen better tatoos on this site than that sculpture. Perhaps like the poor ,searching, sex-driven squids......it mistook the rock for a mate and was searching for some confirmation of its' sexual orientation JUST A THOUGHT