Talk about getting into the spirit! Snappy, in a territorial moment, attacked the water filter in his enclosure at the reptile park. Soon after, he turned orange, which has thus far been attributed to to algae or tannins in the water.
I think Snappy knew exactly what he was doing.
These sculptures by Creatures from El are unique, magical hybrids of biology and design.
Each sculpture can be customized in a variety of ways…
I wonder how the designs take their shape; to what degree they are planned and what degree the shape and forms simply emerge as part of the creation process.
I would love to have this one perched on my desk to keep me company:
Let me preface this by saying I have not had Internet for four days due to Hurricane Irene. My entire town and surrounding areas are still without it and we don’t know when it (or other media/communications) will be restored. I feel VERY lucky to have electricity right now. I drove to the closest place I could find to get online for a moment, and will try to do so again as soon as possible. In the meantime…
This made my day, because outside of saying it myself I’ve never seen the phrase “Zoologically incorrect”…and it’s a favorite.
Peeeeeeek-a-Boooooo!
Another unsettling Peek-a-Boo:
Think about this next time someone uses the fine colloquialism “He/she’ll have my head on a platter!”
This actually got printed:
You might be living in an insane, surrealist dictatorship if your “Dear Leader” is plastered on boxes of tongue scrapers…and walks by to inspect them for quality.
Awww…
Go ahead Betty…one Business Casual Angel Donut won’t hurt…
Yep.
The comic panel of my life (books rule!):
The female of this species probably takes a ages doing her makeup in the morning.
And speaking of other species…we will never be as awesome as this guy…
I’ll leave you with this, folks…
I have no idea why I decided to seek out “Victorian Flea Circus” images. Just a whim. I’ve had stranger ones.
Not all of these images are Victorian, obviously. I just used the search term because I wanted to find flea circuses with that special antique feel.
A little flea circus info.
Let’s begin this post with a luminous sunrise over the rolling hills of a meatscape…
As you may know by now, I love photos of glistening industrial structures.
Nature is amazing.
Two bits of street art that really grabbed my attention recently:
Excellent display.
He’s late for a very important date, indeed…
No idea:
Had this mode of transportation been available to me, I might have attempted to attend Sunday school…once.
I know nothing about the origin of this illustration, save for the title: “Experiment With a Unicorn Horn.”
Arguably the world’s most useful superpower:
I wonder if there’s a number around which the subject matter starts to get a bit tired (101? Really? It’s almost impressive).
Ooh…the candle makes it fancy.
A beautiful clock (it sings!) for the minimalist:
Where is this an actual problem?
I’ve saved the best for last. Here’s a great wedding greeting to send all your newlywed friends. Feel free to post your interpretations in the comments.
There’s so much I love about this…I don’t even know where to begin. This fish, hilariously named “Gary,” was so addicted to Kit Kat bars that he outgrew his tank.
Aquarium staff were baffled when the 8.8lb giant gourami called Gary rejected normal food after being donated to them.
Then the previous owners of the exotic Asian freshwater fish admitted feeding it only with the chocolate-covered wafers.
Experts at the Sea Life London Aquarium had to put crushed Kit Kat pieces inside grapes and banana slices to tempt the 15.7in-long fish on to a normal diet.
Oh Gary…I understand, buddy. My loved ones have tried those techniques to wean me off chocolate too.
Scientific Illustration drew my attention to the best watercolor representations of squirrel anatomy I’ve ever seen (granted, I’ve not seen many, but still…).
I love the title of this one: Squirrel Study Sheet
By Idlethumbs on Flickr.
So many great variations of the fruit bat…so little time. I’ve already posted about the Tubular Nosed Fruit Bat, and now I bring you the regal Epauletted Fruit Bat.
It is a tail-less brown bat with large white epaulettes, white on the middle of the belly and white earspots. It has a head and body length 165 to 180 millimetres (6.5 to 7.1 in) and forearm length 74 to 102 millimetres (2.9 to 4.0 in). The body weight of a female bat ranges from 56 to 115 grams (2.0 to 4.1 oz) while that of a male bat ranges from 59 to 160 grams (2.1 to 5.6 oz). Male bats have two pharyngeal sacs and shoulder pouches lined with glandular membranes. The epaulettes are due to white hair tufts and are prominent in dried laboratory specimens but may be concealed due to the shoulder pouches being contracted in the case of live bats. The epaulettes help spread olfactory cues by dispersing chemicals produced in the glandular shoulder patches. -Wiki
Here is a photo:
Spotted here recently.
Years ago I came across a mesmerizing photo of a disarticulated human skull, cleaned and mounted on display with jointed movable parts. A little something like this:
All I could find was that French anatomist Claude Beauchene, inspired by the work of Leonardo Da Vinci, developed this presentation method in the mid 1800′s. There was precious little information about the process, and very few examples.
Ryan Matthew has resurrected this technique and fine tuned its execution with multiple species. Beauchene would be proud.
Here we have an “exploded” human skull:
Believe it or not, there is no bone cutting involved in this process. The skull is fully disarticulated, using a method of internal expansion. The adjustable metal fixtures are handmade as well.
A baboon version:
And a cat…
Having seen these skulls up close, I must say that the detail and construction are stunning. The lack of cutting ensures that each bone fragment maintains its natural shape and integrity. These models would be fantastic educational resources.
I wonder if exploded skulls will take off as a way to memorialize dearly departed pets. At the very least, I think they will make their way into the personal collections of oddity connoisseurs worldwide.
If you want to commission one, look no further than Ryan himself.
It took a rare specimen (pun absolutely intended) to make me consider dedicating a theme week to an individual rather than a concept. I found such inspiration in self-taught artisan, jeweler, collector, TV personality and master of osteological works Ryan Matthew, who was kind enough to give me a tour of his personal collections.
His home is more of an experience than a standard place of residence. More finely curated than the vast majority of museums I’ve visited, each room is saturated with rare artifacts from bygone days: skulls, articulated skeletons, pickled specimens, taxidermy, metal work, antiquated devices…a collection too vast to be cataloged or justly represented in a mere blog post.
Ryan has transformed his Brooklyn apartment into a wonderland of glass-domed treats, flora and fauna. With remarkable ambition and dedication to his craft, he has created a veritable oddities empire.
I personally feel very much at home surrounded by the rich history of human remains and ephemera. These objects are the time keepers of our ingenuity and foibles. Every surface was adorned with fascinating creations, brilliant artistry, milestones of medical and cultural evolution, misguided inventions, and unfortunate accidents of birth. Every item tells a story, and many of them also carry colorful anecdotes of acquisition (never a dull moment when dead things are one’s trade!).
The myriad skulls in the collection possess various anomalies: interesting ossifications, deformities, etc. These are not the bleached, pristine craniums of med school lectures. These beauties have character.
Well, every piece has character.
This colorful baby doe reminds me very much of Iori Tomita’s work.
What home decor would be complete without a giant jar of human teeth?
Perhaps it’s just the way my warped mind works, but I think this piece would be fantastic in an ad for headache medicine.
Owls have always been one of my favorite creatures…
This baboon gentleman is now poised in front of a human skull under glass, gazing upon it in contemplation; an utterly perfect tableau.
The back room contains a number of curiosity cabinets, all fully stocked and beautifully arranged. It was impossible to take it all in at once, and I rapidly developed a kind of Oddities Attention Deficit Disorder due to the delightful overwhelm. These displays require extensive exploration.
One closeup:
I really wish I had more detailed photos of that room and cabinet contents. I could get lost in them for at least a few weeks…or until someone dragged me away and reminded me to eat and sleep.
Getting the tour…
I was lucky enough to to have two wonderful photographers capture these images for me. Many thanks to the lovely Sara Gage (whom I look forward to working with and posting about in the future) and Sergio Royzen (still life virtuoso!).
Check out Ryan Matthew’s website. We have so much more to cover this week…
