Mary Spencer

“Remembering the spiral of an iridescent shell or those sunfish I caught as a child, I draw and paint sea creatures that swim or crawl on a crusty seabed impressed with marks and bones of life before. Mollusks quickly became my favorite models from a “brainless” clam to the giant octopus described by Sy Montgomery. “It can change color and shape. It can taste with its skin. It has a beak like a parrot, venom like a snake and ink like an old fashioned pen, and it can pour a 100 -pound body through an opening smaller than an orange.” A true escape artist. Houdini would be jealous.

Wind sometimes disturbs my ocean creatures, nautiloids, squids, mollusks; strange creatures big and small, interacting in dark or refreshing blue waters and tidal pools. As reminders of the past, fossils present a tangible gift to our knowledge of animal, mineral and plant life. As many species evolved over millions of years and others disappeared, we remember that we are all but a fragile presence on the planet’s shell. The sea swells dark and deep, holding fathomless secrets…. fossilized yet luminous.”