Artist Statement

I have always been fascinated by creatures and the meanings they carry by simply being. Creatures in the broad sense, I mean. In photography, I seek out charismatic megafauna as subjects, whose presence seems to have a symbolism of its own: the wisdom etched into an elephant’s wrinkles, or the ethereal mystery that the call of an elk creates in your mind. Their spirit feels ancient and instinctive, rooted in something deeper.

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Alongside these real creatures is an illustrated world populated by monsters, spirits, and mythical beasts. I see them as occupying the same territory as the animals: existing through stories in a space I think of as irreal, neither fully real nor fully imaginary. I find the reality of kingship in human history rather cynical: inherited wealth and dangerous ego. A lion, however, can convey royalty as an idea: majesty earned through survival. A monster, likewise, can express something deeply human without ever being human itself. I am drawn to these creatures because they make familiar ideas strange again, allowing the absurd and the profound to exist side by side.

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The other part of this focus comes from a desire for understanding. Creatures are inherently unknowable; there is always something about them that remains beyond our reach, and that distance draws me in. A cougar walking an alpine forest can feel strangely familiar to someone who knows loneliness, and a smiling jack-o-lantern can be a comforting companion to a young boy who struggles to find friendship elsewhere. Whether real or imagined, I can’t stop coming back to these creatures that give form to feelings and experiences that I cannot otherwise name.