Squilla mare
Artist: CARLY KROEHN
2021
Medium: Mixed
Size:
2021
Medium: Mixed
Size:
Artist Statement:
Squilla mare usually lives in sea waters amongst coral reef areas and sea grass. For unknown reasons you sometimes you might see them in a lakes or rivers. Located in the Australian sea waters, specifically Queensland, it blends with its environment ready to attack pray whist camouflaged from predators. Its long snout enables them to probe into nooks and crevices for food. S. mare likes to feed on copepods (which means “a small or microscopic aquatic crustacean of the large class Copepoda.”), nearly microscopic crustaceans (which means “an arthropod of the large, mainly aquatic group Crustacea, such as a crab, lobster, shrimp, or barnacle.”) that can bolt from predators as fast as 500 body lengths a second or the equivalent of a 6-foot human swimming 2,000mph underwater. It uses its leafy body to give themselves near-perfect camouflage in seaweed.
My research into a variety of land creatures led me to the sea. The leafy sea dragon, swordfish, shrimp and stingray were the inspirations behind my drawings and various designs of possible mythical creatures I could create. My first attempt led to a structure that was too large in scale, meaning I had to restart and scale down to enable the structure to stand.
Using scrunched newspaper I could make an initial structure which I layered with paper mache. Using just paint made my piece too flat and I wanted to achieve a leafy finish. I explored different plant types and the use of Italian Cypress tree leaves captured the look I envisioned.
Squilla mare usually lives in sea waters amongst coral reef areas and sea grass. For unknown reasons you sometimes you might see them in a lakes or rivers. Located in the Australian sea waters, specifically Queensland, it blends with its environment ready to attack pray whist camouflaged from predators. Its long snout enables them to probe into nooks and crevices for food. S. mare likes to feed on copepods (which means “a small or microscopic aquatic crustacean of the large class Copepoda.”), nearly microscopic crustaceans (which means “an arthropod of the large, mainly aquatic group Crustacea, such as a crab, lobster, shrimp, or barnacle.”) that can bolt from predators as fast as 500 body lengths a second or the equivalent of a 6-foot human swimming 2,000mph underwater. It uses its leafy body to give themselves near-perfect camouflage in seaweed.
My research into a variety of land creatures led me to the sea. The leafy sea dragon, swordfish, shrimp and stingray were the inspirations behind my drawings and various designs of possible mythical creatures I could create. My first attempt led to a structure that was too large in scale, meaning I had to restart and scale down to enable the structure to stand.
Using scrunched newspaper I could make an initial structure which I layered with paper mache. Using just paint made my piece too flat and I wanted to achieve a leafy finish. I explored different plant types and the use of Italian Cypress tree leaves captured the look I envisioned.
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