The images in this gallery are arranged so that the latest study appears first. To get a sense of the evolution of the idea, scroll all the way to the right and begin viewing there. 

In 2023 18,000 dairy cows perished under one roof: burned alive in a mega-factory farm fire in Dimmitt Texas. More than 500,000 farm animals died in barn fires in 2022. These are just a few of my responses to those events and statistics, seeking to find an adequate way to express the horror through my particular way of working. It seems ineffective and impossible to do more than bear witness through painting.

The images in this gallery are arranged so that the latest study appears first. To get a sense of the evolution of the idea, scroll all the way to the right and begin viewing there. 

This gallery is inspired by Stephen F. Eisenman's, "The Cry of Nature: Art and The Making of Animal Rights"

This gallery is inspired by two things: William Nicholson's still life paintings on stacks of books, and Richard Powers' story of being so moved, experiencing the redwood forest, that he uprooted his life and changed the subect matter of his novels. Bewilderment is one of his novels.

Click on links below the first image to see examples of William Nicholson's paintings.

Copy and paste link below second image for an interview with Richard Powers on his novel with Michael Silverblatt on Bookworm.

As an observational painter I have always loved William Merritt Chase's paintings, and, in particular, "An English Cod," which is in a book I have. I used to marvel at Chase's ability to convey texture in that painting, and how his paint handling was a sort of visual onomatopoeia for the fish's wet, slick skin. Now I'm captured by the expressions of the fish. I didn't know until recently was that he painted several fish paintings--all of them, in my opinion, revealing an empathy for the once-living creatures.