My offering for this year’s Art of Nature show at Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History includes this mixed media piece:
Somersaulting Hydra
Pen and ink, watercolor, digital media; October 2012
The tiny freshwater hydra is green because it hosts photosynthetic algae, but it is also a predator. This biologically immortal animal (a “bag” of stem cells) somersaults as a means of locomotion.
Which is only fitting, I think– a creature that does not age ought to somersault to get where it needs to go…
Read about hydra research by Prof. Daniel Martinez at: http://pomona.edu/Magazine/PCMWin09/NKdanielmartinez.shtml
The Art of Nature show is up April 6- June 9. In case you need an excuse to go to Santa Cruz?
I have participated in this annual exhibit showcasing new artwork by CA Guild of Natural Science Illustrators since it started in 2010. Always an amazing show, botanicals to paleo and the wild things in-between. Come see!
-KA