MANDALAS

Animals in transitional bardo states; human-caused vs. natural death; ecological and spiritual reckoning. Mandala formations, different intention points are duplicated and/or placed in reverse view.

Ink on salvaged linen, hand-sewn modular fragments, mandala-like installations, frayed edges, sustainable materials rearrangeable modular format

Barnum Black Leopards Mandala
2025
Recycled linen and other fibers, pen and ink
55″x72″
Barnum Black Leopards Mandala is the first in a collection of modular mandalas, each composed of individual segments intended for both formal contemplation and meditative engagement. The imagery draws from a 1938 Barnum advertising litho-print poster depicting animal trainer Terrell Jacobs with fourteen black panthers captured in Malaysia by Frank Buck, a historical artifact emblematic of colonial exploitation and the spectacle of dominance over nature.

This work recontextualizes those images, transforming them from symbols of subjugation into emblems of endurance and resistance. The central motif features prowling panthers with teal auras and entwined tails, signifying the will to survive and the persistence of vital energy despite captivity. Surrounding rings of red-auraed rampant panthers and olive leaping figures extend this meditation on survival through visual rhythm and chromatic tension.

The project’s material construction references the late 1970s cut-and-sew stuffed animal trend, a form associated with domestic craft and childhood play. By invoking this process, the work juxtaposes the familiarity of handmade construction with the historical trauma embedded in its imagery, thereby complicating notions of comfort, control, and empathy.

BARDOS

As a practicing animist, I feel deeply the melancholy of how we treat the natural world without regard. In this work, I want to explore what it means for animals to experience death through the lens of the Tibetan Buddhist understanding of the bardo—the transitional state before rebirth, a passage of detachment from the body, contemplation, and dissolution into what comes next. In our world, countless deaths occur each day outside the natural cycle, not through predation or balance, but through human disregard, greed, or carelessness. These are deaths without purpose.

In this series, each animal I portray will meet the viewer’s gaze directly—unless its passing was part of the natural order. Those who died needlessly will look back at us, silently asking why their lives were taken. I imagine them suspended across vast landscapes, their forms hovering above the countryside, the unnatural dead bearing witness through their eyes.

Through these images, I aim to convey the consciousness of the animals as they move through the stages of the bardo: detachment from their physical form, merging with their surroundings, and ultimately transitioning toward their next incarnation.

We’re outta here (Tiger Bardo)
2025
84”H x 108”W
acrylic on raw canvas, charcoal, conte crayon, sewn canvas and linen, thread, india ink

Iberian Wolf Bardo
2025
64″H x 45″W
acrylics, house paint, charcoal, reclaimed photo back drop canvas, linen, india ink, thread

(Iberian wolf ascent with aura over painting of Portuguese ocean view painted over satellite view of Portuguese mining ponds)

Hare Bardo
2025
36×36″
pen and ink on linen, shellac ink on canvas sewn on linen then sewn on panel, thread

Otter Bardo
2025
47.5″H x 47.5″W
charcoal, acrylic, house paint, reclaimed photo back drop canvas, linen, india ink, thread

Swallow Bardo
2025
64″H x 64″W
charcoal, acrylic, house paint, reclaimed photo back drop canvas, linen, india ink, thread

Fox Bardo (Pounding Hoof Visions)
2025
48×60
shellac ink, charcoal, and acrylic on yupo

Cheetah Bardo (Sea and Sky Return)
2025
60×48
Acrylic, house paint, shellac ink, charcoal on yupo
(Becoming one with everything before moving forward into its next life)

Black Wolf Bardo
2025
60×48
house paint, graphite, charcoal, acrylic on yupo

Polar Bear Bardo
2025
30×24
india ink on yupo