Crab and Frog

Peter Zokosky

I became interested in animals engaging with other animals, most often the purpose is to eat the other creature. It’s a remarkable drama that goes on constantly. I was intrigued by the profound differences between these two. The crab is slow and well armored, the frog agile, but vulnerable. It seemed to express something important about survival strategies.

I bought the live crab from a seafood market, it worked well and grabbed the chopstick I waved in front of it for the photo session. I didn’t feel right cooking the crab, it acquired a name, “Roberto” I took him to the Seal Beach Jetty the next day and found a suitable place among the rocks. I hope Roberto survived.

I decided to visit a pet store and see if I could buy a dead frog. There was a tank of very small frogs with a few dead ones, they were happy to give me a couple of them. I noticed some larger, more interesting looking frogs and asked if there were any of these dead. The employee informed me “Those ones don’t die”

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A Discourse on the Arts & Sciences

Hi Peter: Thanks for getting in touch. I recently joined Open Museum due to some poking around on the web. What a great resource this is for artists for exposure and networking. Your work reminds me of Wade Schuman who is one my favorite painters. Nice work.

July 22, 2010

alease

I found the most interesting comparison made in this painting is that people eat crab legs and frog legs and these are the prominent appendages in this painting. Also, I never thought about crab eyes before but the intent and focused look on this one made me look more closely and compare it to the frightened look exhibited by the frog. Not sure how you captured that unless the dead frog model you used died from fear. I love the muted colors – more earth tones instead of easily falling back on the expected blue/green colors of the sea.

May 8, 2010

Peter Zokosky

Thanks. It seems like all life has the same essence and that you just have to search it out. I prefer crab legs to frog legs myself.

June 2, 2010

goodbyelmc

Go Roberto! Lol, that’s awesome. You should do a crab series so you can liberate all the crabs from the seafood market.
Glad to hear there is a life form on the planet that doesn’t die. I’m sure there will be a rash of research on this immediately, and that I will soon be gulping down tree frog tablets from Whole Foods.
The painting is great too!

May 5, 2010