An indian star and an argonaut sail for your undersea travel.
The female argonaut is the only octopus that makes a shell. I first saw her paper- thin shell displayed in Deyrolle and thought it resembled the shape of a wing. For years naturalists wondered why this modest octopus keeps a shell while everyone else is naked. I absolutely love the drawings that arise from Aristotle’s hypothesis- that the argonaut’s shell was her boat, her tentacles were to help with the rowing and her large dorsal tentacles were her sail that she used to travel across the surface. Well, while she is indeed usually found near the surface of the sea, it’s been published that she controls her buoyancy by trapping air bubbles in her shell.
And isn’t the shell of the indian star tortoise beautiful? I saw it at Toronto Zoo this summer and thought it was quite perfect! Anyway, I’ve been working on this side project/series which I plan to start screen printing. I like looking at illustrations of hot air balloons, and of course, I know going up and down isn’t so hard for sea creatures like it is for us on land, but I kind of like that absurdity. It’s so completely luxurious and recreational and if Neptune is god of the sea then he should have all kinds of toys embellished with the most beautiful underwater things. I also like imagining passing a pod of dolphins going over and under you while you’re in a hot water balloon!
-Christie
