It strikes me that Lovecraft's description of Cthulhu could just as easily have been a reaction to one of Chihuly's overwrought monstrosities:
A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings [...] It represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind. This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence ...
Btw, Paul, where did the pic of the cute, cuddly, wee, Old One come from?
Drew