Meet the coast’s living fossils. Horseshoe crab gets an image boost from artists.

With its dome shape and spiky tail, the horseshoe crab might at first look like a fearsome visitor from another planet. But for artists like Heidi Mayo, the ancient creature is an approachable muse.

A collection of 13 brightly painted horseshoe crab shells hangs along her back fence here. On her kitchen table sits a novel she wrote, inspired by encounters with the living fossil. Upstairs, in the top-floor studio where she teaches art classes, two spiny molts serve as figure-drawing models. 

“They’re really part of my life,” she