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My art fuses my love for animals, concern about
the welfare of the planet and twisted sense of humor. I call
my work "environmental surrealism". Influences include kitschy
portrayals of animals from mass-marketed popular culture,
the nightmarish imagery of Hieronymus Bosch, Beatrix Potter,
Maurice Sendak, the writings of Edward Abbey, and my work
as a wildlife rehabilitator.
My "religious animals" paintings are
a reaction to the ubiquitous fundamentalist religion in America
as well as the idea propounded by most organized religions
that animals have no souls. Some of my animal characters have
founded their own religion, complete with nuns, popes and
televangelists. My environmentally-themed paintings feature
naughty animals having fun turning our superiority on its
head by demolishing industrial objects. Grizzly bears with
jackhammers "restoring" a freeway, a mountain lion with an
acetylene torch decommissioning a bulldozer, arctic wildlife
laying waste to a Hummer dealership and animals tearing down
billboards for housing developments are some of the characters
who populate my paintings.
I also enjoy the disquieting effect of combining
body parts from different species. As someone who works with
small animals I often ponder the evolutionary process - why
creatures look the way they do. Questions as what a bird would
like with a squirrel or rabbit head pass through my mind.
The hybrid animal paintings are a way for me to indulge these
curiosities where no one gets hurt.
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