Randy Ortiz began life as a burrowing freshwater larva. At this stage, he was toothless, with rudimentary eyes, and fed on microorganisms. He transformed into an adult through metamorphosis similar to most amphibians. It involved a radical rearrangement of internal organs, development of eyes and transformation from a mud-dwelling filter feeder into an efficient swimming parasite and sexual tyrannosaur. Randy is a self-taught artist and he illustrates and designs his art by attaching his mouth to a goatfish, secreting an anticoagulant into the host, and drawing with the blood and melted tissue that spills from the gelatinous orifice. Randy draws influence from the dead shells of insect vessels ravaged by parasitic cordyceps, careful not to inhale the deadly strings of ascospores created by the flask-shaped perithecia.
