The newest specimen from my ROSEBUD painting for Greg Rouse of SIO.This is a Glass Sponge (porifera) found living on the ocean floor near the Rosebud Whale Fall. An Anemone has colonized on the spicule, i.e. the stalk—a double helix of glass strands. It is not yet known how the glass is produced by the sponge.
Oil paint on panel, 2018.
The actual glass stalk, from the collection at UCSD/Scripps: Benthic Invertebrates. Thank you, Charlotte Seid Ph.D!