An octopus is an artist’s dream.

Their existence alone is an artistic one. Think about it - they can change colors and textures in an instant. I think that’s such fun thing to try and capture in a painting, almost like the perfect challenge for an artist. Octopuses’ skin is covered with thousands of chromatophores just below the surface. Each one contains an elastic sac full of pigment that they can control by stretching or squeezing. It absolutely blows my mind that they’re able to do that and mimic their surroundings, all while these octopuses are only seeing in black and white! I think this incredible talent makes octopuses sort of artists in their own right, using their body as a canvas 24/7 to survive in this big ol’ world. Can you find any better creative inspiration that that?

As a National Geographic Explorer, Tara was commissioned by National Geographic to create this educational elephant content for use across their social platforms. Enjoy the video below:

A portion of the proceeds from each archival print will go directly to funding a locally-run octopus conservation initiative.