"This work is a poignant response to the huge biodiversity in our world under threat.
Each animal represented in this work has either recently become extinct (like the tomato toad), under severe pressure with numbers reduced to 100 if not 10s, some species only exist in forced breeding programmes (like the Spynxx macaw), others are numerous now but due to their populations drastic decline will be considered extinct in the next few years (like the jackass penguin), and many species in this work are extinct (like the quagga).
Every animal has been researched extensively, some species were from museum stock, others from black and white imagery. Many species only one picture remains of them, or can only be tracked down in Turn of the century illustrations. It was an extensive research project to get the animals represented as accurately as possible.
This work shows the animals, like a stage set. As your eye rolls across the format, each animal has been represented by the artist as realistically as possibly. as your eye catches an animal, it becomes center stage. Some are large, others small, yet others are hidden, slowly revealing themselves to you in their own time.
This work took roughly 6 months to complete as the more I constructed the image, more species needed to be represented.
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