Q & A:

Why have you chosen animals as your subject matter? How do they inspire you?

I use animals in paintings to convey emotion. It is challenging to create an image that gives an animal character beyond being cute or anthropomorphic.
I’ve been face to face with a mountain lion while hiking in the Sierras, surrounded by sharks diving in the South Pacific and frozen with terror staring at the wide open jaws of a cottonmouth in a cypress
swamp in Georgia. Conversely a school of curious squid in Fiji touching my mask with their tentacles left me smiling for days. Wild encounters are thrilling and unforgettable. I spend as much time as possible photographing wildlife in remote places for inspiration. Through observing and painting animals I hope to convey a full range of emotions.

What is the conceptual idea behind the work in this show?

I rented a studio surrounded by acres of ponds in Georgia. I sketched an alligator in a bathtub, likely facing my morbid fear of them. A tame alligator was silly, yet somehow comforting. I canoed regularly on the pond in front of my studio, nervously. The estate I lived on allowed hunters to shoot the animals and I imagined inviting all the animals to hide in my bathroom including a ten foot alligator. I included a boy holding a bluebird to further the illusion of safety in a frightening world. The idea that prey and predators could peacefully hang out in one small room is clearly a fantasy, although I do wish we could all give up eating each other and get along. This painting took years to finish and it was different from anything else I had done. I’ve continued the series with Catskills Treehouse and have drawings for several more.