My art challenges the prevailing ideas about human dominion over nature and animals in western culture. The idea of human dominion reverberates throughout history in art, literature, philosophy, and religion. There is a historical tradition in Christian Europe of bending nature to human will and imposing order on the landscape and animals themselves. In this tradition, all wild things must be destroyed, tamed, and or consumed. Today, animals are often symbolically tamed and made into caricatures for the entertainment of children as well as adults. Consequently, animals are diminished in both perceived complexity and importance. Animals are vilified in reality and some fiction as irrational and inherently destructive. Some animals are symbolically consumed as an emblem for a group or organization where its essence is co-opted to signify the identity of that group.

    The idea of human superiority has been maintained in the archetypes, tropes, icons, and symbols used to extol human triumph, conquest, and power over animals, nature, other humans, and death. I seek to elevate the status of nature and the animal as topics worthy of the discourse of art history and theory. I utilize the same icons, symbols, archetypes, and tropes and re-create them in a manner that grants power to the animal depicted, thereby allowing the viewer to see that the animal has its own power and efficacy as a sentient being.  It is my goal to restore dignity to, change the way culture views, and consequently treats animals and nature.