In artist Alp Ozberker’s deep-sea vent world, anemones have jagged teeth, starfish pucker red lips and visitors drift through black smokers in yellow submarines.

The California-based artist may be among the first to show shrimp, black smokers and even the submersible Alvin in popular art.

Geologist Dan Fornari commissioned Alp to create vent life etchings last year after meeting him at a San Francisco art festival. The result was eight etchings, each portraying a different vent scene. Often, the organisms have exaggerated or modified physical features like teeth or spikes or extra claws.

“I liked the whimsical nature of the etchings, and I knew he could portray the weirdness and beauty we see at the seafloor,” said Dan, who has the etchings hanging in his Woods Hole office. “He was using very abstract shapes I knew would lend themselves to the vent creatures.”

Painting tube worms, bacteria and smokers was a first for Alp, a professionally-trained artist. But he is a scuba diver and “loves everything about the ocean, including reefs, seas, atolls, you name it.” Alp learned what the vent organisms look like from video and photos Dan sent him, then used his imagination for added twists like green jellyfish and yellow-eyed fish with red eyelashes.

“I do not know any other artists [painting] vents because it is a specialty theme,” said Alp in a recent Email.

Alp works in a medium called Etching Intaglio. He uses acids on copper plates, then prints the images on pure rag papers. He hand-paints the vivid blues, greens, yellows and reds with watercolor paints.

Tonight we are looking at vent creatures on the seafloor through the eyes of Jason’s video cameras. Perhaps not as fanciful, but every bit as wild and wonderful as those portrayed in Alp’s etchings.

Dive and Discover Water Word Puzzle [Click here for a printable version of Dive and Discover Water Word #2] Click here for the solution.

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