ART OF DEFENSE
Sculptures by David Eisenhour
Photos by Ann Welch
Captions by John F. Williams
Summer 2023
Sculptures of marine life created by artist David Eisenhour. Many of them are very large versions of small things, such as these barnacles and limpets.
Art of defense
Sculptures by David Eisenhour
Photos by Ann Welch
Captions by John F. Williams
Summer 2023
Barnacles defend themselves with the shells they build while attached to a hard surface. These protective shells are made from six pieces, and they are quite strong. Limpets also have a conical shell, but it’s just one piece. More about limpets below.
You can see more about barnacles and more of David’s work in our 2018 article, The Barnacle: More Than Meets the Eye by Smith, Calvez, Rudnick
Here’s an assortment of limpets and barnacles with a chiton in the middle. Limpets actually crawl around on rocks, eating algae off of them. However, they crawl so slowly that it’s hard to see them move. The short time lapse video below shows their motion by being sped up considerably.
You can see more about limpets in our 2021 article, Home Sweet Home, Limpet Style by Barbara Erickson.
One of kelp’s defensive tactics is to attach itself to something relatively immobile, like a rock. That keeps it in a favorable place in the water column instead of washing up on the beach where it will die.
These artistic renditions of sea jellies (jelly fish) illustrate two main parts: a “bell” which it uses for very efficient locomotion, and stinging tentacles it uses for both defense and offense.
David Eisenhour is an artist living and working on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.
Eisenhour portrays and interprets organic forms, and through his artistic processes tells stories of natural history and human experience. His artistic vision reflects his lifelong inquiries and documentation of the forms and beauty in nature, as well as issues related to the environment.
The majority of David’s sculpture is cast in bronze, and he has also worked in steel and stainless steel. He has and continues to experiment with additional mediums including stone, found objects, concrete and coal and printmaking. http://eisenhoursculpture.com
Table of Contents, Issue #20, Summer 2023
Defense is in the Gills
by Thomas Noland, Summer 2023 Shag-rug nudibranch and egg ribbon, among other creatures on a pier piling in January. photo by John F. Williamsby Thomas Noland, Summer 2023Nudibranchs are the adorable, charismatic, and voracious slugs of the sea. The Salish Sea is home...
Never a Dull Moment
While one eagle parent gets mobbed by crows, the other one feeds the little ones. Shot in slow motion.John Gussman became interested in photography as a means to share the natural beauty of the places he travelled. After getting a degree in photography, he began...
The Plant Armory
by Sarah Lorse, Summer 2023 Stinging nettle. photo by John F. Williamsby Sarah Lorse, Summer 2023Plants are, predominantly, sessile organisms: a seed lands in suitable conditions, it takes root, and the plant lives out the rest of its days in that spot. Being sessile...
Poetry-20
Summer 2023 Coyote turning to run away. photo by John F. WilliamsSummer, 2023Close Call by Nancy Taylor Benji, my miniature poodle puppy,was too mischievousto bring inside the garden piled withcompost from bat guano, worm castings, coffee grounds—healthy for the soil,...
Attack of the Sea Slugs
Intriguing (and rather amazing) defensive mechanisms of some of our Salish Sea residents are shown in these two short underwater videos by Champ Williams. These videos appeared in Episode 18 of the TV series SEA-Inside: Pacific Northwest in 2008. THE SECRET...
Plant Armory Part 2
by Sarah Lorse, Summer 2023 English holly. photo by John F. Williamsby Sarah Lorse, Summer 2023The Plant Armory Part 1 introduced plants as predominantly sessile organisms: they tend to live out their lives in one spot. Being sessile is a significant disadvantage when...
Specters in the Dark
by Jeff Beyl, Summer 2023 Spiny Dogfish. photo courtesy of National Marine Sanctuaries, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commonsby Jeff Beyl, Summer 2023If you spot a shark while scuba diving, in most cases you would consider yourself fortunate. In the Pacific Northwest,...
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Thanks so much for your interest and your support.