Venerate

In 2015, I started a series of animal portraits to inspire empathy and compassion. The portraits were a reaction to increasing environmental concerns. Animal habitats are consistently threatened by encroaching human development. Factory farms have taken over the food industry and a variety of species are endangered and extinct due to environmental pollution and illegal poaching. I wanted to call attention to the dire need for humans to have compassion for animals. In having compassion for other living beings, by allowing ourselves to understand that animals possess feelings and thoughts, people can widen their understanding of the natural world and thereby better understand themselves. In many ancient cultures, animals were considered to possess symbolic powers and were venerated, respected and worshipped. I believe that it is time to return to a similar system of thinking, to ensure our spiritual, as well as our literal survival. I believe that humans and animals possess souls and Venerate calls upon the viewer to witness the soul of the animal depicted. In this visual process, it was my goal to not only inspire empathy, but to deepen the viewer’s humanity.