Another invertebrate for #invertefest2024: made for the coastal #InsertAnInvert2024 prompt “sand” - an anemone who can move over sand. This is a wandering sea anemone (Phlyctenactis tuberculosa) or swimming anemone, is a species of venomous sea anemone in the family Actiniidae native to sheltered reefs of shallow seas around Australia and New Zealand/Aotearoa. 1/n

Bonus #ArtAdventCalendar & #invertefest &#crustmas print made for #InsertAnInvert2024 Time after time shrimp like crustaceans have evolved crablike forms (through a process called carcinization) and do a good job of pretending to be crabs, but this odd looking fellow is the real deal, a true crab. My red frog crab (Ranina ranina), also known as a spanner crab or Huỳnh Đế crab, is …

For the #InsertAnInvert2024 prompt flyer, #artadventCalendar and #invertefest this final week of the year: my kaleidoscope of butterflies. Kaleidoscope is the wonderful name or term of venery for a group of butterflies so I designed this print to match the symmetrical images you can see in a kaleidoscope. There are three each of the orange Isabella’s Longwings (Nymphalidae Eueides isabella), 1/2
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#printmaking #sciart #butterflies #MastoArt #typography #termsofvenery #insect

Bonus #artAdventCalendar: For the #InsertAnInvert2024 prompt jumper: This is a small little handprinted linocut print of a red-legged grasshopper (Melanoplus femurrubrum), one of the most common grasshoppers in North America, these are the most commonly seen grasshoppers in the northern US and southern Canada. Reddish-brown on their backs, yellow-green below, they are named for their orangy-red legs. 1/2

Day 15 #ArtAdventCalendar: The third #InsertAnInvert2024 prompt for deep sea month is abyssal - the lightless, extreme pressure and low oxygen zone 4 to 6 km below the surface. So I made a lino block print of a charming Grimpoteuthis octopus, one of a genus of pelagic cirrate (finned) octopods known as the dumbo octopuses. The fins reminded scientists of ears on the elephant in Disney’s 1941 film Dumbo. 1/2

Day 12 #ArtAdventCalendar: made for #InsertAnInvert2024 prompt blobchain my linocut of a Portuguese Man o’ War floating at the surface of the sea, printed in blues, turquoise, violet and pink on white 9.25” by 12.5” Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper.

These are beautiful but deadly creatures, also known as bluebottles, resemble jellyfish but are actually colonial organisms called siphonophores. 1/n

Day 8 #ArtAdventCalendar: an adorable, caterpillar-like blue velvet worm from New Zealand or Aotearoa I made for #InsertAnInvert2024!

Velvet worms (phylum: Onychophora) are named for their velvet-like texture and somewhat wormlike appearance. They are elongate, soft-bodied, many-legged nocturnal animals who spit slime to trap prey, somewhere between worms and arthropods. 1/n

Day 5 #ArtAdventCalendar: What’s inside this cigar box? A black smoker - with giant tube worms (Riftia pachyptila) for #InsertAnInvert2024. I’ve had the idea for this #multimedia in my head for years! Cigar box, collaged papers, gouache, Posca pen, glue, washi tape.

I’ve never had the opportunity to go on a research cruise to a hydrothermal vent, though I have contributed to plans for monitoring

For #ArtAdventCalendar day 3 my final hand-printed lino block print with gel plate printed areas is about Coronula diadema, a barnacle which specializes in humpback and some other baleen whales for #InsertAnInvert2024. Each print is 20.3 cm x 20.3 cm (8” x 8”) on lovely Japanese mulberry paper and shows the humpback whale swimming above and a close up of the whale below with six barnacles. 1/3

This December #InsertAnInvert2024 is about #insect motion. The first prompt is scuttler, about “early” insects who didn’t evolve flight. So I made a tiny #linocut silverfish (Lepisma saccharinum). It got its common name from its colour and its fishlike movements.

An extra jellyfish for #InsertAnInvert2024 Blobmonth!

Maybe I should make this print into fabric?

You can find some of my other jellies on fabric here:

https://www.spoonflower.com/en/fabric/17305754-discomedusa-dance-by-minouette