Hell Bent
This piece was accepted at the 49th Founders Juried Awards Exhibition in the Von Liebig Art Center, judged by Diane Camber, director emeritus of The Bass Museum of Art with a long-standing involvement at Miami Art Basel.
Juice Break
One day, she will be the president or a neurosurgeon. Until then, a juice break.
This giraffe is human.
There has been a long-standing debate as to whether or not we should attribute human characteristics to animals. It’s called anthropomorphism. Many scientists, such as Pavlov, saw it as a lack of objectivity. Others, like Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall, attributed all sorts of emotions to their subjects. Of course, they were studying gorillas and chimpanzees, the closest living relatives to humans. Frans de Waal wrote, “To endow animals with human emotions has long been a scientific taboo. But if we do not, we risk missing something fundamental, about both animals and us.”
From an artistic viewpoint, I find it very helpful to attribute human emotions to my animal portraits. I’m in good company. Aesop did it in his fables. As did Lewis Carroll, Rudyard Kipling, C.S. Lewis, George Orwell, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Walt Disney Company.
As for the giraffe, which human emotion do you see in this portrait?
Warning: Do not sign your life away.
What’s next? NO SINGING . . . on the shower curtain? We should ban all signs that deny us life’s pleasures.
Unchain My Heart
Set me free. And if I come back to you, I am yours . . . to lock up again. 
She cannot tell a lie.
Believe her when she says, “I love strawberry ice cream!” 
Thelma and Louise
Best friends forever.
Enso Monkey 