Viral Deep Hawaii Art: "po`ohiwi" The Octopus Gyotaku, Unframed Perfect Gift [eUOiq5Lr]

Artist: Deep Hawaii Art
Title: "Po`ohiwi" The Octopus Gyotaku, unframed
Medium:  Custom Reproduction piece embellished with Prismacolors on Washi rice paper
Size: 21" x 33" (paper size)

Lāna`i artist Kristin Belew painstakingly embellished this life-size reproduction of her Gyotaku print with Prismacolors.   

Gyotaku is a traditional Japanese style of fish printing where each original piece of art is taken right from the fish. Kristin applies acrylic paint to the actual octopus then presses rice paper onto the specimen to receive the paint. She then adds in details!  

Fun facts from Kristin:  

"In Hawaii, Octopus are referred to by their Japanese name which is Tako.  The Hawaiian word for octopus is He’e and the species most commonly harvested is the Day octopus (Octopus cyanea.)  Although octopus is a very popular and sustainable food source (listed as “a good alternative” under Monterey Bay Seafood Watch Program) for many people living in Hawaii, it is one I choose not to harvest for myself.  I absolutely love these creatures and cannot bring myself to kill one, but I am not opposed to others doing so for sustenance purposes.  Thus, this tako was “borrowed” to create this print.  Some quick cool facts on octopus: They can change their color, texture and pattern in 3/10 of a second and they can open childproof pill bottles. Octopus can have as many as 240 suckers on each tentacle!The photo to the right is the original Raw print that I added to to create this piece and bring this octopus back to life.  I named this octopus Po‘ohiwi, which is the Hawaiian word for shoulder.  It is pronounced poh-oh-he-vee !"