ADDENDUM: Might put some gum snakes in my Etsy shop later in case anyone wants to adopt their own. I’ll also be showing prototypes and so on at my event Monster Picnic. (Link in older post.) First date is tomorrow and there are still spots! Come talk art with me!
/fin

Anyway, happy World Snake Day! I’m heading to Post Alley to place a few more gum snakes. If you’re in the area and looking for something unhinged to do (relatable), have a wander through and try to spot one. Here’s to artistic obsessions and strange marvels 💚🐍

In 2024, I made and added three more generations of gum snakes, just because. I haven’t talked about it much until now.

Surveying my slightly cursed handiwork, I christened it Charina murugumis (gum wall boa). A new cryptid. On Dec. 16, 2023, I brought a bagful to the Gum Wall along with a block of poster putty and stuck them up. My wish: to create a moment of mystery and delight for anyone who stumbled across one.

But I was obsessed, and persisted, and eventually produced some gum snake sculptures I was happy with. So, naturally, I made silicone molds and did hand-painted eyes and produced dozens and dozens of them.

There was also a brief, horrifying experiment with the idea of a gum SNAIL. If you listen carefully, you can hear them saying "killllll meeeeeeeeeee"

What if a snake species had evolved to live on the Gum Wall the way that vine snake had to live in the Amazon? What would it look like? Very lumpy, I decided. Sheepish expression. Many color morphs.

I got some clay and got to sculpting. My first attempts were abominations.

(I find the idea of the Gum Wall disgusting YET it’s an unsanctioned, uncommissioned, collaborative public art project so I adore it on principle.)
ANYWAY here’s where the snake thing comes in.

(The Gum Wall is part of an alley in Pike Place Market where people stick chewing-gum wads to the bricks in such exuberant quantities that it looks like some kind of undersea accretion-creature. Like coral but gross. It’s one of the state’s top tourist attractions.)

Fast forward to 2023. I’m back at home in Washington State and for some reason am thinking of the vine snake. That color! That camouflage! What a marvel. Then my thoughts alight upon another marvel of sorts: the Seattle Gum Wall.

The idea started in 2019. I was in the Amazon rainforest in Peru (long story) and went on a muddy night hike with a biologist, who pointed out a creature that blended in so well I would’ve otherwise squelched right past it: a kiwi-green vine snake.

THREAD:
Soooo I have a World Snake Day confession. For the past two years, I’ve been putting snakes on the Seattle Gum Wall. #sciart

How do you study volcanoes on other planets? First, you study them here on Earth. Which can get a little... hair-raising. www.rei.com/blog/hike/me... This feature about NASA planetary geologist Dr. Rosaly Lopes remains my favorite thing I've ever written #volcano #geology #naturewriting

weird girl summer

GLOW UP (dino edition): made this 4' tall fluorescent baby brachiosaurus last year for Burien, WA's annual Arts-A-Glow festival. Paint job insp by alebrijes. Wasn't satisfied so I resculpted the head, redid the paint job, and gave her some fake ferns to munch. #paleoart #sciart #dinosaur #sculpture

Can't buy a pet dinosaur so had to make my own... Juvenile Utahraptor ostrommaysorum, just because. #dinosaur #velociraptor #paleoart #polymerclay #artdoll #jurassicworld #sciart

This weekend I made a pugtato and nobody tried to stop me #pugs #potato #polymerclay #sculpture #sciart

Turtlemato or tomurtle? (If you squint, you can see which side I came down on.) #polymerclay #sciart #turtles

Obsessed with making food animals. In honor of National Garlic Day, here's a garlictopus (Octopus allium) #polymerclay #garlic #octopus #sciart

some days you're the pigeon, other days you're the sad potato whale #sculpture #polymerclay #potato

It's still #BatAppreciationDay for a couple more hours so I made a video. Introducing POTATO BAT, a playful sculpture series inspired by an extinct Australian microbat (more on that in a future project) #SciArt

Thank you @flyingtrilobite.com! Will do

Might quit art today because I will never top Batato. Happy International #BatAppreciationDay everyone #polymerclay #makearteveryday #bats #whatifbatbutpotato