The project Animal Holes depicts the burrowed warrens, hills, and nests excavated by creatures within diverse and varied environments. The series explores my ongoing interest in the makeshift landscape, with each hole acting as evidence of adaptation. Creatures improvise and make due adjusting to diverse conditions – from abandoned landfills and brown fields, to spiny desert sagebrush and the cavities of old oak trees. Jewel-like shards of glass and broken brick mix with peanut shells, winterberries, and pine needles, as debris is unearthed or collected around the periphery of each black hole.
I am interested in how the holes function not only as literal shelter for the creatures that inhabit them, but also how they act as a constant visual incision into the landscape. The familiar negative space of each hole focuses attention on the variations and change in each surrounding environment. The void of the black hole acts as a reminder of the unknown, arousing the imagination to consider what lies within or beneath the depths of the landscape. The dark space becomes a reflective surface onto which each viewer can project more metaphorical meanings, from the transitory nature of mortality to carnal acts of desire.