I saw this image on an art site - intended to show off its beauty as a print. I am sorry to admit that I recognize that item as being anything BUT beautiful. To my amateur eyes, it looks to be the sad, sad wreck of a torch coral. I only hope the artist knows how beautiful it REALLY was... when it was alive.
Oh, I don't think it was killed for a photo. Much of her work was "found items" from the beach - shells, & c. My thinking was simply that she saw the beauty in the skeleton, having likely never seen the really beautiful animal that built it... And that's a shame!