For a stunning series entitled Blackwater, Hawaii-based diver and photographer Joshua Lambus takes beautiful photos of luminous aquatic creatures against a perfectly black background that enables us to better appreciate just how incredibly awesome they are.

Lambus says, “Now being underwater I’m inundated with stories, struggles, triumphs. Seeing our fragile ecosystem inch ever closer to the verge of destruction pushes me to continue my work, not only for artistic value, but for a far greater purpose. I hope to tell a story and ask for help for those without a voice.”

Here’s hoping we’ll see some of these enchanting cephalopods in our dreams tonight. 

Visit My Modern Metropolis to view more of Joshua Lambus’ astonishing Blackwater series and then head over to his own website to check out more of his photographic work.

Artist Adam Wallacavage created these incredibly awesome octopus chandeliers for his solo exhibition, entitled Shiny Monsters, which took place last year at the Philadelphia Art Alliance.

“Inspired by an obsession with the ocean and a fascination with extravagant interiors of old churches, Adam Wallacavage transformed the dining room of his South Philadelphia Victorian Brownstone into something from the pages of a Jules Verne novel. Teaching himself the ancient art of ornamental plastering, Adam evolved his new found skills into making plaster cast octopus shaped chandeliers as the final touch to his underwater themed room.”

Click here to view more pieces from the Shiny Monsters show.

Adam is officially welcome to come over and transform any and all of our rooms. We can’t think of a single space at Geyser of Awesome headquarters that wouldn’t benefit from the addition of more tentacles.

[via Hi-Fructose and Laughing Squid]

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!

From the Department of Awesome Natural Wonders come these mysterious patterns on the ocean floor off the southern coast of Japan. Japanese scuba diver and photographer Yoji Ookata, who has spent the last 50 years exploring and documenting his underwater discoveries off the coast of Japan, spotted these beautiful and puzzling patterns in the sand, nearly six feet in diameter and 80 feet below sea level, during a dive near Amami Oshima at the southern tip of the country.

So what happened next? Are these rippling geometric patterns the equivalent of crop circles on the seafloor? Not quite, but the answer is still a good one. Colossal explains:

“He soon returned with colleagues and a television crew from the nature program NHK to document the origins what he dubbed the “mystery circle.”

Using underwater cameras the team discovered the artist is a small puffer fish only a few inches in length that swims tirelessly through the day and night to create these vast organic sculptures using the gesture of a single fin. Through careful observation the team found the circles serve a variety of crucial ecological functions, the most important of which is to attract mates. Apparently the female fish are attracted to the hills and valleys within the sand and traverse them carefully to discover the male fish where the pair eventually lay eggs at the circle’s center, the grooves later acting as a natural buffer to ocean currents that protect the delicate offspring. Scientists also learned that the more ridges contained within the sculpture resulted in a much greater likelihood of the fish pairing. To learn more about the circles check out the full scoop over on Spoon and Tamago, and you can see two high resolution desktop photos courtesy of NHK here.”

Busy little pufferfish boys wooing potential mates by sculpting the sand with their bodies. As far as we’re concerned, that’s pretty awesome!

[via Colossal]

The 2nd most popular Geyser of Awesome post of 2012 looks like it was made by a talented and adventurous artist, but it’s really a talented and patient puffer fish. 

(via archiemcphee)