Statement

Using anatomy photos, classic scientific and children’s illustration, and personal research as touchstones, I aim simultaneously to examine our common ground with nonhuman animals, and their nature as pure outsiders: the liminality between wildness and urbanity, domestication or freedom, and the agency, expression, presence – the 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 ultimately reveal themselves. Historical children’s illustration, classification systems, fractal geometry, and superhero comics inform my creatures’ characterizations; their superpower is 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

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