If we can really see an animal, we’ll care to protect it. That’s what I paint for.
My mission
Art and animals have been the two constants of my life. There’s no subject that means more to me than the natural world. I believe that if we could really see the depth and complexity behind any single animal, we’d inevitably care to protect them and their natural habitat.
I’m drawn to the overlooked ones. Not the millionth tiger, but the sea slug, the butterfly, the Pallas’s long-tongued bat - creatures most people pass over. It’s easy to miss, but really look at any animal and it’s overwhelming: the sheer number of colors, the vividness, the detail. I build a full color palette for every piece to focus on showing that complexity and richness. Painting animals in that up-close, detailed way that most people never see them in.
My hope is simple: that my work makes you stop and look closely at an animal you’d never seen as intimately before and for you to leave changed.
Driven by purpose
I trained in graphic design and traditional art, but for a long time the work didn’t feel like mine. After trying many art styles and focuses, animal portraiture was the one that came from within and to this day is the most meaningful work I have ever done.
I am also a disabled artist. I work at a pace my body sets, and I’ve made peace with that being part of how the work gets made rather than a thing to apologize for. There’s a thread between the two halves of what I care about - animals are so often underseen and under appreciated, and so are disabled people. Both have far more to offer than a quick glance suggests. I’d like my work to make more of the unseen seen.
We’re more like animals than we realize, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. They hold extraordinary capacities for emotion, creativity, and resilience. Without them the world would be less varied, less complex, and a great deal less beautiful. It’s up to us.