EXHIBITION STATEMENT

This new series of paintings envisions fairytales of the future. The current, unprecedented devastation of Earth's wildernesses foretells a time when the great forests are gone, and with them, half the animal species with whom we share the world today. In comparison, the present will surely appear as a sort of Golden Age, abundant with lush forests and wondrous beasts -- what sort of tales will they inspire?

Stylistically, these artworks suggest the rich paintings from the School of Fontainebleau, a sixteenth century efflorescence of French Art, which exalted the enchanted forest. An aura of mystery and possibility pervades the paintings, which are rendered using a Renaissance mixed-technique of oil and egg tempera.

Although imagining the future, a common theme of the paintings is memory. While researching these works, the artist hunted for a fairytale titled "The Golden Toad," which she was certain she had read. However, memory was deceiving her, for the Golden Toad (Bufo periglenes) is actually a Costa Rican amphibian, recently extinct. Ironically, though humans are responsible for the planet's vanishing forests and extirpated species, it is in human imagination and memory that these lost treasures will continue to exist. Therefore, the Golden Toad, now gone, returns in mythical form, to remind us what we can still save.