This is an image of a female octopus safeguarding her eggs. She has made her nursery in an abandoned soil pipe on the ocean bed. I’m continually struck by how resourceful and inventive Octopuses are and felt that the circular pipe was a beautiful metaphor for the circle of life, for as you may or may not know, the female Octopus looks after her eggs until they hatch and then fades away. Thats because they are semelparous which means they reproduce just before they die. This image is created from an Acquainted plate dipped until black. The image is then created using a burnishing tool, literally drawing the image out of the darkness. I felt that this method of working was appropriate to the subject matter.

  • Medium: Aquatint on Zinc
  • Edition: Edition of 15
  • Size: 24cm diameter
  • Price: £140.00 (unframed)