JELLYFISH DAY

Purple-Striped Jellyfish

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Monterey, CA

2/29/08

 I travelled to California this past spring with some of my co-oper friends.  We had many adventures, like snowshoeing in Yosemite National Park, feeling like ants next to the giant sequoia trees in Sequoia National Park, and visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  

I love jellyfish, and this aquarium had the HUGEST collection of jellyfish I'd ever seen!  I spent 2 hours just sketching the jellyfishes on the first floor (black sea nettle, lion's mane jelly, egg-yolk jelly [they were all stuck together and looked gross - really like an egg yolk - although eggs are delicious]), then discovered another section on the lower level (giant moon jellies [the size of a dinner plate], Mediterranean jelly, blue jelly, etc)!  

The purple-striped jelly was my favorite kind:  It was tan colored with purple and brown spots, and it's "body" was about the size of a baseball cap (without the visor part) and its tentacles stretched like 20 feet long.  Maybe even longer, because sometimes the ends are invisible and unsuspecting victims get stung.

I guess if I ever got stung I wouldn't like jellyfish as much.  But they're such fascinating creatures!  So colorful, so translucent, so graceful.  Since we're on the topic of jellyfish, here's a jellyfish windsock I made in fibers class in college.  It's made with silk organza fabric that I dyed using shibori, tie-dye, and other techniques to resemble water-like patterns.  It always hangs in my room.  Look at it blow in the wind!  

have a happy jellyfish day!

mindy