Banana Octopus
21cm x 6.5cm wide
This buoy was once used in a sein or gillnet fishery and was found on the shore on Balaclava Island near Port Hardy. These styrofoam floats, nicked named “banana floats” because of their shape and original yellow colour, are used to hold the nets at the surface. They can be found all over our coast and until now I found them difficult to paint as I could not find a design that worked on them.
On this buoy I have painted two arms of a giant Pacific octopus. Giant Pacific octopus can live as long as 4-5 years and are incredibly intelligent. Each arm is thought to have independent “thinking” capacities and each sucker has incredibly complex sensory capabilities with thousands of chemical receptors. It does not include brass octopus holder.