Dancing Potatoes

 This is the potato music box:

Juliette Warmenhoven of NL created this project to showcase the beauty and spectacle of plant growth. Juxtposing sprouting potatoes or bonsai trees with various shades of seafoam-colored plastic pleases me greatly. It has that doughy, silicone, Matthew Barney feel.
Note: Though she was inspired by found plastic objects, she made all of the components herself out of liquid plastic and fiberglass.

 

germination station:

 

 

If that's no enough, she also made these vases, inspired by insects and the meant to mimic their coatings with these custom glazes:

found on sightunseen, where you can read more about this project.

Her site, where you can see the book from whence these images came.

likin' the lichen

Always amazing lichen. Lichenscapes by Margaret Oomen at resurrection fern.

'tis the season

Trees: keeping it apolitical for 360 million years

Zhao Zongzao, Land of Peng Lai, 1982

from here

Blüten

texture, color, shape.
saschanordmeyer.com

Nudibranch

(Pronounced "noo-dee-brank", as I just learned, although I still prefer the "brantsh" version I'm used to.) Everybody should be aware of these mollusks.

On a different note, I will try to start linking all the images to their original contexts to be fair to the originators. Often I just save screenshots and use them way later, but I will do my best. Here goes:

Baby Tapir, I want to squeeze you.

Yes, this is going into the "plant friends" category. We don't need Avatar for quality animals. Although I wouldn't mind braiding up to one of those horse creatures...

This and many other things you want to get really close to from cuteoverload, which I visit far too often. Speaking of which, someone once told me that this is the substance (a hormone) which makes you (me) squeal with joy when we encounter very, very cute things and want to squeeze them until their eyes pop out:

"Oxytocin is best known for its roles in female reproduction: 1) it is released in large amounts after distension of the cervix and vagina during labor, and 2) after stimulation of the nipples, facilitating birth and breastfeeding, respectively. Recent studies have begun to investigate oxytocin's role in various behaviors, including orgasm, social recognition, pair bonding, anxiety, trust, love, and maternal behaviors.^[2]" (wikipedia)



I don't know if it's true, but it would make sense if there is powerful stuff involved.

How things will go...

...and where I hope to celebrate my brithday in the future. I apologize for not being able to trace where this photograph came from. I've been saving it for a long time, on the old hard drive. Do click and see it in big.