From the Department of Awesome Animal Hybrids come Octopussy and Seahorse 2, two more wonderfully weird and tentacular paintings created by San Francisco-based artist Robert Bowen (previously featured here).

Both are currently available here as signed, limited edition prints.

[via OMG Posters!]

It’s Tentacle Day on Geyser of Awesome!

Brooklyn-based artist Vik Muniz, master of creating awesome images by meticulously assembling countless pieces of trash and discarded objects (previously featured here), has created three new works using gold scrap metal. They’ll be on display in the form of digital prints at the Armory Show in New York starting March 7th, 2013.

[via Colossal]

Zoology is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct.

Japanese artist Iori Tomita transforms the scientific technique of preserving and dyeing organisms into an awesome art form with a breathtaking series entitled New World Transparent Specimens.

Tomita’s creation process is both painstaking and time-consuming. After first preserving the animals in formaldehyde, he then removes the scales and skin. Next he soaks the creatures in a stain that dyes the cartilage blue. Tomita uses a digestive enzyme called trypsin, along with a host of other chemicals, to break down the proteins and muscles, halting the process just at the moment they become transparent. The bones are stained with red dye, and the specimen is preserved in a jar of glycerin. From start to finish, the entire production takes about five months to a year.

“People may look at my specimens as an academic material, a piece of art, or even an entrance to philosophy,” says Tomita. “There is no limitation to how you interpret their meaning. I hope you will find my work as a ‘lens’ to project a new image, a new world that you’ve never seen before.”

Visit My Modern Metropolis and Iori Tomita’s website to view more images of his awesome work.