MURA · THE COLLECTION

The Lobster & the Moon

A red lobster the length of a sofa reclines on a brown chaise longue in a pink room, one claw raised to hold a small full moon. Through the open window the night is dark green. On the side table there is a glass of wine and a book. It has been a long day.

Mura Studio · 2026 · Gouache · Contemporary · story written 25 September 2026

What is going on

The lobster is doing what lobsters never do and people always do: lying down with a drink and a view. Its shell is painted as carefully as the upholstery, segment by segment, and the antennae reach up past the drawing on the wall as if to check the time. The moon in its claw is the one pale thing in the picture. It could be a lamp; it is better as a moon.

How to look at it

Take in the room first, because it is a good room: pink plaster, a tiled floor, a woven rug, a framed drawing of a seated figure, olive branches in a jug. Then let the lobster arrive, the way it must have arrived, from the sea outside the window. The composition is a long horizontal, the creature and the chaise lying across the whole width, and the window on the right opens the picture out into the dark.

Why it is in Mura

Beautifully Strange, mood dreamy. Hung on a television at night it is a picture of rest, and it is hard to look at without slowing down.