My current paintings examine the human behavioral patterns that differentiate us from every other species on the planet, as opposed to the behavioral similarities that confirm the animal/instinctual nature at our core. Through paint and constructed collage, I seek understanding about widespread human absurdities and assumptions regarding our hierarchical standing within Animalia. Just as racist and sexist points of view can have devastating consequences to humanity, anthropocentrism can have a disastrous effect on the world around us. By presenting a blur of the human/animal boundary, I hope to subvert the sediment of the status quo and present a tension between what I see as our base nature and our potential to transcend it. This body of work physically deconstructs the existing natural world through painted collage, part by part, creating new organisms without a speciesist hierarchy.

These paintings of “chimeras” are expressions of some of my most profound thoughts, and my lifelong interest in why we humans behave the way that we do, in the context of nature. These works are my personal way to level the all too unbalanced playing field between human beings and animal beings, if only with paint and paper.