Octopus's Garden (and a Crab)

Stanley the Octopus at the Playground by the Sound is all done! This was Anne Marie's baby, and I got to help out a bit. We've been painting Stanley since mid-August.  It's great to finally be finished, and Stanley is looking pretty awesome!



The bit above Stanley is meant to be the Narrows Bridge, and Stanley is the giant octopus who lives under the bridge. Just this last week they got the "Galloping Gertie" sign attached, in honor of the original Narrows Bridge that collapsed in 1940. The wreckage is reportedly home to some of Stanley's relatives and other sea life.



The last couple of weeks have been devoted to painting suckers.  I got close-ups of some of Anne-Marie's detail that I thought turned out really well.



A Giant Pacific Octopus can have up to 1600 suckers. We didn't do that many!



I got to paint a hermit crab on the back side, coming out of one of Anne Marie's shells.



His name is Hermie.  (Anne Marie named him.)



And here's Stanley getting his urethane coat this morning. (We had some extra help for this part.) We've been pretty lucky with the weather holding up. But now we're all finished, so let the rains come!



We were out at the park last Saturday, so I got some pictures of Kate with Stanley. She thought he was pretty cool.



I painted these Orcas last year and never did get a picture.  Now I have!



Anne Marie in the sucker-painting zone. We enjoyed working together! Hopefully we can do it again.

Painting Stanley

I've been helping Anne Marie Corey paint the octopus over at Chambers Bay Playground. The octopus was installed a year ago with the rest of the playground, but has been naked since then. He's finally getting some paint! Anne Marie named him Stanley.



We've been going out early in the mornings to get some painting done before the playground is teeming with children. We do block off the area with caution tape, but we still do get to field a lot of questions.  "What are you doing?"  "Are you artists?"  "Can I paint?"





The back side of Stanley's grotto. There's a hole for kids to put their faces through to take pictures, and Anne Marie thought it would be fun to have something on both sides. We've been mostly working on this  side, putting the background in and deciding where the pieces go and getting them screwed in place.



I got to put the detailing on the seaweed. (Anne Marie painted all the other pieces at home.) I'm also going to add a hermit crab coming out of one of the shells.

Stanley will be a great addition to the playground!