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SIMONE THORNTON

Skunk Ape

Serigraph

12'' x 12''

2016

The Skunk Ape is a cryptid that has been reported to live in the Southern Americas. It gained this name due to its ape-like appearance coupled with the foul odor that accompanies it. Reports of the Skunk Ape first appeared in the late 1920s and were particularly common in the 1960s and early 1970s. This culminated in 1974 when, in Dade County, Florida, locals began to witness a hairy, foul-smelling, ape-like creature that runs around on two legs. In the autumn of 2000, the police of Sarasota County, Florida, received a letter from an anonymous woman. With the letter were two attached photographs of what the woman said was an escaped orangutan who had been stealing apples from her back porch for three nights. These photos were later found to be taken near the Myakka River. After the images were released to the public, cryptid enthusiasts dubbed the creature in the photograph the “Myakka Skunk Ape.”