Today Seattle artist Rudy Willingham –known widely for Insta-famous photography of paper pop-culture cut-outs against Pacific Northwest scenery, KEXP album-of-the-year-nominated music, clever social media marketing, videography and book Cut It Out Seattle—confirmed longstanding rumors that he is, in fact, an eight-limbed octopus.
Fans of the artist had long suspected it was impossible to accomplish so many things so well with any fewer than eight arms, and they were right, Willingham said at a press conference in the KEXP Gathering Space this afternoon.
“The hands you see in the photos – they’re just Archie-McPhee finger-hands custom-made for me so no one is off-put by my many skilled tentacles,” Willingham said. “I was just doing my best to fit in as one of you people with two normal hands, arms and legs, but I’m tired of hiding who I really am – the most creative fucking octopod the world’s ever seen.”
Erin Larkin, a marine biologist at the Seattle Aquarium, assured us that octopi do not typically have such a keen eye for photography, music, publishing and social media marketing savvy all at the same time.
“Actually, I’ve never seen an octopus take a picture, but I’d also never seen any living being transform Drumheller Fountain into a bottle of champagne popped by Kim Kardashian, so anything’s possible,” said Larkin. “I mean, as long as you have eight appendages like Rudy does.”
When asked about upcoming projects, Rudy played us an eight-turnable remix of his latest album, Dunk Reactions, and told us he was up to “other totally normal human things done exactly eight times better.”
