INKTOPODES of INKTOBER

Troy's Work Table participated in the "classic version" of Inktober 2021. I started on time, but finished a few days late. Some of the themes were challenging to figure out how to incorporate within the mythology of the Inktopodes but I didn't let that stop me. I just needed some extra time to sit with themes such as pressure, tick, leak and figure out how I wanted to illustrate them as small cephalopods.

THANK YOU

Troy's Work Table Publishing wishes to thank everyone who helped make 2019 a wonderful year of art and poetry for TWT and the Inktopodes.

Thank you to Puyallup Valley Dental Care for hosting the "Strange Gliding Things" show in their gallery for three months.

Thank you to the Washington State Fair for accepting four pieces of Inktopodes art for their 2019 Fine Arts Show.

Thank you to the Maplewood Elementary PTA for allowing Troy's Work Table Publishing to have a table at their annual Holiday Bazaar.

Thank you to Creative Colloquy for accepting my short story "Endured, Uttered" for publication on their website and allowing me to read it as part of their Summer Soirée. Thank you for accepting my poem "Warpaint Melville" for publication in the forthcoming print version of Creative Colloquy, volume 7.

Thank you to those of you who purchased Inktopodes art and cards this year.

Thank you to those of you who purchased, read, and/or listened to my poetry and writing.

INKTOPODES • TABLING EVENT

The Inktopodes of Inktober and their friends will be at the 5th Annual Maplewood Bazaar on Saturday, November 16, 2019 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

www.facebook.com/events/895933014103462

This is the only tabling event at which the Inktopodes will appear in 2019, so come and visit them before they swim away!

CHARON

This is Charon, Inktopodes number 130.

Charon is named after the ferryman of the dead who helps those recently deceased cross the River Styx (River of Hate) and the River Acheron (River of Woe) from the world of the living into Hades.

The pattern of chromatophores on Charon's skin mimic the nostrils on a human skull.

Charon is watercolor ink, gouache, and India ink on 3" x 3" watercolor paper. (No colored border.) It comes with a small wooden frame that includes glass.

$17.50 + $5 shipping. (Shipping is waived if you live in the South Puget Sound area and we meet up for delivery.)

MARLEY

This is Marley, Inktopodes number 126.

He is the quintessential Inktopod for which I've been searching. The ink color is Payne's grey and I like that it captures the quality and look of Chinese and Japanese calligraphy without being too dark.

The brush strokes were quick and loose and definite. Marley drifts through the water, without surrendering his own agency.

He is named after the ghost of Scrooge's business partner in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

I like him so much that I think he will take up residence on the physical manifestation of Troy's Work Table.

MERIAN

"Merian," number 6 in The Grand Armada series of the Inktopodes. Original: watercolor ink, India ink, gouache, and iridescent calligraphy ink on 8" x 10" watercolor paper. Scanned reproduction: in digitally colored frame.

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Merian is inspired by late-seventeenth- and early-eighteenth-century illustrator and naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian, as well as her watercolor works depicting pineapples and attendant insects, especially "Ripe Pineapple with Dido Longwing Butterfly" and "Pineapple with Cockroaches," both printed in Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium. Merian appears as an inverted pineapple with the body of the pineapple making up her mantle and the fruit leaves transformed into her arms. The colors of Merian are rich and vibrant, more so when the original is viewed, since some of the color is dulled during reproduction. The natural vibrancy of the Hydrus Fine Art Watercolor inks—rich gamboge that glows against Hansa yellow medium and brilliant sap green—is a wonderful background for the India ink maps drawn upon them.

The inked "boxes" on the mantle are inspired by a map of Berlin circa 1900. The patterns on the arms are reminiscent of the contour lines of topographic maps, especially of those representing peaks of the Cascade Mountains. The orange gouache eyes simulate the caterpillars that climb up the sides of the pineapple in Merian's painting.

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"Merian" appears in the Strange Gliding Things show by Troy Kehm-Goins, which is on display at Puyallup Valley Dental Care during April, May, and June 2019.