This is a life-size portrait of a coelacanth (see-lə-kanth), a fish previously thought to be extinct for 65 million years. In 1938 it was discovered off the east coast of Africa. I was inspired to create this specimen by the book “A Fish Caught in Time” by Samantha Weinberg. The coelacanth is described as having large luminous eyes, with skin a mottled variety of deep blues blotched with cloudy white spots. How could I resist? It is one of the few fishes whose fins are “lobed”, allowing them to swivel like the limbs of terrestrial animals. Once thought to be a missing link between swimmers and walkers, but found to have split from our family tree long ago. Populations still survive in the deep waters off the coast of Madagascar and in Indonesia, on the other side of the Indian Ocean. When choosing fabrics for this quilt I picked Indonesian batiks in rich indigos for the fish, floating on a hand-printed cloth from Africa, therefore placing the coelacanth in her natural location of the world. The title, “Gombessa”, is the African name given to this creature.