from the Extinction(s) Series
2025
56″h x 56″w
textile canvas and linen, the artist’s clothes, thread, adhesive, pins (for installation) and found 1950’s packaging design
The thylacine was a marsupial found on Australia and some of it’s outer islands from at least 30 million years ago until quite recently. By around 2,000 years ago, they disappeared from everywhere except the island of Tasmania. There were about 5,000 living on the island when colonizers began deforestation in the 1800’s. A bounty on them was set up shortly after. The last known individual died while housed at the Hobart zoo in 1936, about 20 years before the American brand Sun Ray steel wool used in this found packaging was on the market. Thylacines were a product of convergent evolution, so they are not related in any way to either canines or large cats. They could open their jaws to an almost 90 whopping degrees. Both female and males had pouches, which were unusual for marsupials, and opened to the rear and not up toward the head. It is theorized that the males used the pouch to protect it’s own sex organs. There are reports from some people that said they had a pleasant smell, others said they gave off a foul odor, this was probably due to a fear response that produced an unpleasant musk release. Shy creatures, they were easily captured and sometimes suddenly died from fear.
Medium: used fiber, paint, thread, adhesive, canvas, cotton US flag
60”h x 50”w
About THE DODO
My dodo is a composite conception based upon art and accompanied by my contemporary research.
I referred to the few drawings catalogued from the Dutch East India Company sailors. A Dutch fleet had taken possession of the island of Mauritius in 1598 in an attempt at harvesting local ebony wood while planting sugar cane for crop production that had been brought from Java.
The earliest drawing of a dodo comes from their time there in about 1601. By the time their ships had abandoned the island in 1710, the dodo was extinct (it was last documented alive in 1688). As well as the birds having to reckon with deforestation and with on-board vermin that exited the ships while at anchor, they were simply seen as fresh meat. And although they found the dodo tough and unpalatable, the dodo was eaten into oblivion by the Dutch.
17th century Indian master painter and naturalist Ustad Mansur, who specialized in plants and animals, was the earliest artist to depict the dodo in color in 1628. Research also points to all depictions of dodos based on taxidermy recreations are shown as extremely plump and overfed in captivity, including Mansur’s as it was likely observed in a Moghul royal court’s menagerie.
Cornelius Saftlevin’s sketch of a dodo head is the last known drawing of the bird from life in 1638. The work of Dutch illustrator FW Frohawk informed the feet.
2024
recycled denim, dye, canvas, recycled fabric, waxed cotton thread, adhesive, ghost gear net
60 x 72 x 1 in.
meditation on climate grief. how do things decay when the material is not natural.
we will become the fodder for what comes next.
2024
54h x 32w x 9d
vintage fur coat fragments, vintage shearling fragments, antique mirror, chicken wire, fabric and canvas
Our species is a walking killing jar. Our specialty is anything we admire. But we want others to admire us for the thing that another being possesses. So, we take. We kill. We strip. We walk around dressed in that being’s skin. As if the act behind the possession can be unseen. Uncared about. We don’t take on its beauty. We have just become a walking jar of consumption for whatever catches our eye, without a care in the world.
2024
canvas, thread, the artist’s late father’s clothing, coffee bags, on stretchers
30×64
2024
recycled denim, dye, canvas, recycled fabric, waxed cotton thread, adhesive, ghost gear net
28x20x1
meditation on climate grief. how do things decay when the material is not natural.
we will become the fodder for what comes next.
2024
canvas, thread, the artist’s late father’s clothing, dyed cloth on stretchers
30×64
2020
antique fabric, found wood, enamel, fabric tacks, lead, foam, paint, adhesives
34 x 34 x 12 in.
2020
cyanotype stained and printed cotton, nails, thread, stone, foam
18 x 6 x 6 in.
homage to egyptian mummification with nod to first world problems
2019
cyanotype printed cotton duck, reclaimed nails, shed antlers and mixed media
80 x 10 x 14 in.
Head printed with frontal cyanotype of deer skull, sides printed with two jaw mandibles, body print of wildflowers and grasses. Nails from my late father’s workshop. Depicting the balance of life, death and what is left.