Statement

Using anatomy photos, classic scientific and children’s illustration, and personal research as guideposts, I seek to examine our common ground with nonhuman animals, alongside their nature as pure outsiders: the liminality between wildness and urbanity, domestication or freedom, and the agency, expression, presence, personhood – unique to each species. The humble medium of coloured pencil supports this aim, requiring patient layering and increasing complexity of line, until the creatures are ultimately revealed. Historical children’s illustration, classification systems, fractal geometry, and superhero comics inform my creatures’ characterizations; their superpowers are their extraordinarily diverse patterns and textures, the perfection of their adaptability both to their specific ecosystems (which in the drawings manifest as halos), and to living on a planet overrun by one dominant species of primate.

– Beth Wilks

“Since voice is equated with self-assertion, to recognize animals’ (symbolic or literal) voices acknowledges their agency. Instead of positioning human advocates as the defenders of “voiceless” animals, we can identify as allies of animals, whose role is to amplify and elevate their voices by exhorting others to make the effort to listen, hear, and understand what it is they’re saying.” – Sarat Colling, Animal Resistance in the Global Capitalist Era.

Originals and greeting cards available. Prints made to order. Email creaturestudies1@gmail.com.