Perceptions and beliefs of our right of ownership are the very thing that distorts our true understanding and appreciation of the natural world. Through the medium of charcoal drawings, I utilize high realism, the drama of black and white, and the power of scale to first entice the viewer to my images of animals. Devoid of sentiment and familiar context, the viewer is asked to look at the subjects in a new light, to look and truly see these magnificent beings as they may have never observed them before.
Sentimentalized and sanitized in cartoons and popular culture; caricaturized as athletic mascots, these unique and magnificent creatures have been minimized to a word, an object, a possession, hence lost from our vision, our understanding of them, ourselves and our place in the natural world. We are them, they are us.
Beyond inspiring a new awareness, respect and appreciation, I seek to provoke the viewer into a deeper contemplation and questioning of our illusion of ownership, dominance and control of the natural world and the beings that share it with us.
