The Animal Collection
The Animal Collection explores movements and habits of animals in nature, demonstrating the presence of expression within the concept of biology. Works by John James Audubon masterfully captured birds in their natural habitats as his life’s work required him to live among his aviary subjects to make scientific recordings. His studies and illustrations have influenced my bird and animal paintings from the beginning. Like Audubon, my artwork depicts animals and their unique dance with nature and reflects my unique observations and interactions with the subjects.
Name
Herd Bound
Medium
Mixed Media on Canvas
Size
24" x 30"
Herd Bound gives a contemporary nod to Cubist artworks from Marcel Ducamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase No . 2 , and Pablo Picasso’s Guernica. The basis of Cubism is painting different angles of a figure while maintaining the perception of two dimensions.
Layering forms and shapes is key to creating a sense of depth. The name of this piece originates from a traditional horseman term “Herd Bound”, describing a horse that has a hard time leaving its herd. This separation anxiety and urgency intensifies the farther removed a horse is from its herd.
Tiny Dancers
The art of Ballet uses dance to express emotions similar to feelings seen in paintings. The similarities between dancing and painting are heightened with a sheet. The dancers hold each end of the sheet, while the fabric is manipulated in the space between them. This happenstance manipulation is expressed within the sheet, creating an eb and flow of folds between and over orchestrated movements. Even though the dancers are cloaked, their movements are expressed through the sheet itself. The Dancers movement under the sheet creates its own painting with each movement.