Red Hook Octopus

Artist: Mike Makatron Year: 2023

This mural is hard to miss—with a giant purple octopus crawling across the wall, wrapping itself around the corner of the house. Painted in 2023 by Australian artist Mike Makatron, it’s more than just street art. It’s a portal into another version of Red Hook—one where the jungle has taken over. No people, no noise—just birds, sea creatures, and vines creeping over the remnants of a forgotten industrial world. Mike Makatron is an internationally renowned artist. He has painted in over 50 cities across every continent, with a significant number of murals in New York, where he lived for five years. His work explores the collision between the natural world and urban life, often imagining surreal environments where nature reclaims space. The mural was commissioned by Stephen, the owner of this house—and also the director of Q Bank Gallery in Queenstown, Tasmania, an artist residency and gallery he co-founded with friends in an old bank building. When Stephen bought this place in Red Hook, he didn’t just want to renovate it. He wanted to offer something back to the neighborhood. A gift. He reached out to Mike. They’ve known each other for years, back in Melbourne, and Mike once even did a residency at Q Bank in Tasmania. Together, they dreamed up this vision of Red Hook: stripped of human life, but still pulsing with memory and wild rebirth. It was Stephen’s kids who chose the octopus. They loved how Mike paints sea creatures. For Mike, it was a way of connecting with the ocean of Red Hook. It felt like the perfect fit. The octopus stretches across the wall, massive and surreal, as if it’s always been here, silently watching. Next to it, you’ll notice the tall, rusted yellow towers that once held the water tanks supplying the warehouses of the shipping industry. It’s one of Red Hook’s last remaining industrial landmarks. Stephen insisted on including it in the mural. To him, it’s an icon of Red Hook’s fading past—soon to vanish in real life, but preserved here in the mural. Now, look closely at the Statue of Liberty. Something’s different. She’s holding… an ice cream cone. Unexpected and funny—but it’s rooted in local memory. While painting, Mike met someone who once ran an ice-cream store in the same building—sixty years ago. That moment stuck. The torch was replaced by this sweet human touch. Finally, toward the end of the mural, you’ll find a vibrant hummingbird, its purple providing the perfect counterbalance to the octopus—a bright spot in the overgrowth : something brief and beautiful in a world without people. As you can see, this mural is a forest of stories - a sea creature chosen by teenagers, an old industrial landmark on the verge of disappearing, a moment shared between friends, family, and neighbors. It also offers a new way of seeing Red Hook—one shaped by nature, memory, and imagination.