This series is ongoing; it may never end. 

When I was a kid, I had the complete set of Wildlife Treasury animal cards. Complete set. I would spend hours looking at them, and reading about every animal. I memorized them, I stuffed my brain with trivial facts about each creature. I wished there were more animals, so that I could have more cards.

I think this series is my attempt, as an adult, to recapture that interest. To reconnect to the details of every animal and how they live. I’d love to do this series as a card set eventually, and maybe, when I get up to about fifty animals, I will start planning that. For now this series continues as I add animals I particularly like or connect with.

The geometry behind each animal is meant to represent the place they live, or their personality, or both. For example, the walrus lives in a place where meat is the only food, pretty much- hence the red backdrop. I felt that walrusses are very much a bloody animal- I mean, when they warm up, as they exit the icy waters, their bodies become pink from the flush of blood to their skins. This influenced my choice of color. Their personality, their spirit, seems very radiant to me, very warm- despite the cold climate they prefer. The shapes behind them are meant to convey this warmth and radiance.

Each of these animals has a backdrop which symbolizes some aspect of their lives; each may also have minor added detail to show other things which affect them, like the white bird on the hippo’s head, or the bubbles around the octopus.

I used handmade paper for most of these, very well-smoothed, then tinted with watercolor and ink. Then I drew the animal in colored pencil. The geometric shapes were planned with the assistance of a kaleidoscope, a spirograph, several french curves and just plain old eyeballing the shapes for clarity. None are precisely symmetrical or perfect- but living things never are, are they?

You can find prints of the entire series, as they're finished, here.