COSMIC OCTOPUS

"The Cosmic Octopus" by Troy's Work Table.

Watercolor ink, India ink, gouache,and pigment-based iridescent calligraphy ink on 12” x 16” watercolor paper.

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This is the "Cosmic Octopus," the source which gives birth to all of the other Inktopodes. This is the "Big Bang" version of her. This is #0 of The Grand Armada.

(This is the largest piece I've done to date, and it's creation included a few new techniques.)

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"Cosmic Octopus (Big Bang)" was a gift for my dad on Father's Day. It includes a few references to my mother, since I use to joke with her that she was an avatar of the Cosmic Octopus and that her Parkinson's disease was actually this divine being trying to figure out how to use her body. (My mother informed that this was *not* funny.)

My mother's dates of birth and death are worked in to the Cosmic Octopus's chromataphore camouflage. Likewise, the constellations (gold) in the silver star field refer to the night sky in the months of my mother's birth and death.

Her coloring is Fauvist in background, with the nebulae that flow from her providing the richness and saturation of pinks, magentas, purples, blue, and a bit of yellow and green that appear as her skin.

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The model for this painting is a giant North Pacific octopus named Melanie. I had the privilege of visiting Melanie for a number of hours over a few visits to the Highline MaST Center and Aquarium. Every time I visited, Melanie came out of hiding and interacted with me from the other side of her aquarium glass.