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.

 

As an observational painter I have always loved William Merritt Chase's paintings, and, in particular, "An English Cod". 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.