Ray Currier
i have an affinity for octopuses. they are highly
intelligent, exhibit both short- and long-term memory, and some observers have
witnessed what appears to be “play” behavior. because of this intelligence,
some countries have granted them “honorary vertebrate”
status to afford certain protections (like
anesthesia) to them when they are subjects of research. they're also just
really cool looking, with all those legs and suckers and different colors.
similar to the numerous legs of an octopus, i have
numerous interests: music, photography, spiritual development, etc.
octopuses can change color to communicate or escape
danger. i've often felt that the moods embodied in my work closely resemble
what octopuses achieve via changing color.
many species of octopus can also change their musculature
to manipulate their apparent texture, enabling them to blend in more closely
with their surroundings and making them less visible to predators. music and
photography are all about texture and textural contrasts: light vs. dark, major
vs. minor, dense vs. sparse, fast vs. slow – you get the picture.
for a discussion of why i'm using “octopuses” versus
“octopi” (which is what i learned was the correct plural as a youth), see the
discussion in the “Terminology” section of the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus.
© 2020 R. Currier III