September Exhibit

Throughout history, toys reflect the values of societies and shape children’s worldviews. Today, the popularity of animal-based toys swell, suggesting a society-wide admiration of animals misplaced in consumerism, and the toy industry responds to meet the demand. However, the industry contributes to the degradation of the environment, disruption of ecosystems, and shrinking biodiversity. Within children’s bountiful piles of colorful plastic and polyester is nostalgia for a wilderness now scarce. In addition to the destruction, the toy industry does little to educate children about animal context, agency, and anatomy. Artworks contrast the real and toy animal in and out of their natural context to question what has been lost. 

In my work, animal-based toys and objects are examined as subject in still life paintings. Created from still lifes, paintings depict animal toys in domestic spaces often replicating a natural environment or animal realities. For example, my painting “Watering Hole III” depicts a toyscene that could never occur in nature―predator and prey (as well as extinct) animals coexisting in harmony around a watering hole, aka the sink. These works mourn the fading natural existence of animals and examine materialism’s role in decontextualization of the animal.