These three lion paintings explore the theme of man vs. beast, the cruelty of man, animal rights, as well as the tension between life and death.
It is all too often in art and literature that the animal is the underdog, usually depicted as a celebration of man for his great bravery and triumph against the “beast”.
These paintings are sequential in my mind. First, the human is hunting the lion, sneaking up on him and pointing a gun.
This obviously angers and frightens the lion who is seen peacefully walking away in the last two paintings. Notably, the human is not seen in the last part of this narrative.
The image transfer text contains passages from William Golding's the Lord of the Flies and the Man-Eaters of Tsavo by John Henry Patterson.
Consider the archaic question of “Who really is the beast?”
Executed in acrylic paint, charcoal, collaged paper of magazines, tags, image transfers, metal, and other found objects. They also contain tiny glass beads which add texture to the surface.
One of the trio also contains a real bullet casing.
