Artist Statement

This work presents sentiments of longing, desire, connection, and surrender that creates an introspective and internal psychological space to relate to the animal as autonomous, but also as an emblem of the human condition. Inspired by Darwin’s “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals”, the work draws from his theory that humans and animals express emotion through shared aspects of being that connect us all in our ability to empathize and bond with one another. The geometric forms are intuitive connections of stars from NASA star maps. The star maps exist as a visual representation of the invisible energy of the Universe that is felt but not seen by the animal subjects. This work tells a universal narrative about emotion and connection, one that intertwines us all as individual but connected beings. The pictorial space here isn’t the natural world, but rather, the innermost space between thinking and being.