More Troglofauna and Stygofauna

Paroster macrosturtensis, linocut print, 8" x 8" by Ele Willoughby, 2024

The other two #InsertAnInvert2024 prompts were troglofauna or cave fauna and stygofauna or subterranean but aquatic fauna. 

This is a hand-printed of the Paroster macrosturtensis beetle, a blind predatory subterranean diving water beetle from the calcrete aquifers of the Western Australian desert. Trapped underground for million of years as the calcrete caves formed these beetles have evolved to no longer have eyes. It is printed on 8" x 8" Japanese paper.

Neoniphargidae, 8" x 8" linocut print by Ele Willoughby, 2024

This is a hard-carved and hand-printed linocut print of a little semi-transparent, white amphipod crustacean in the Neoniphargidae group from the Pilbara. This is a large, dry, sparsely populated region in northern part of Western Australia which is a global biodiversity hotspot for subterranean fauna including aquatic animals that live in groundwater called stygofauna like this. Stygofauna can live in subterranean caves but most commonly live in alluvial, karstic or fractured rock aquifers within pore space and fractures in the rock.  In the absence of light, stygofauna lack eyes and pigmentation. Stygofauna have evolved and survived over millions of years in the ecologically important Pilbara groundwater environment.

Mini Print International - Asia Pacific

Finalists, friends, family & print aficionados...
You are cordially invited to attend the opening reception of the awards:
Date: April 6th 2012
Time: 6pm - 9pm
Venue: No Vacancy Gallery, 34-40 Jane Bell Lane, (QV) Melbourne 3000. (enter from Russell St)

Should you be reading this from Melbourne, I hope you'll consider going to see this Mini Print International - Asia Pacific opening on my behalf. I'll be 16250 km away, but I am a finalist, and you can see several of my prints in the exhibit.

Mini Print International - Asia Pacific

I've just realized that I was selected as an Exhibition Finalist for the Mini Print International - Asia Pacific! I created the Winged Walrus specifically, with this exhibit in mind, but submited other "mini prints" (10 cm by 10 cm print area - roughly 4 inches square for Imperial unit hold-outs - on 18 cm by 18 cm paper). The others are the Hand-Held Harpy, T. Rex with Flowers and The Bumblebee. You can find information on their planned exhibits on their Mini Print International - Asia Pacific Facebook page. They had to move to a larger venue and are planning the Mini Print International Awards and exhibit at Melbourne's premiere contemporary exhibition space No Vacancy Gallery (QV) April 2-16th, 2012. They plan later dates in Sydney and Hong Kong.

All finalists will receive catalogues of the exhibit, but if anyone happens to be in Melbourne, I'd love to see photos of the work in the gallery (and the same is true of subsequent exhibits in Sydney and Hong Kong - I'll update you here about future venues).