An inquisitive hare holds a little girl by the pigtails with one lucky foot, while brandishing a pair of scissors in the other. A blindfolded and bound boy knows not the intent of the calf towering over him. Another boy dances to the music of his concertina-playing monkey master. A cheery songbird brandishes a kitchen knife worthy of a slasher flick.

VEAL is a series of large paintings in which cute is set upon cute in a perversion of storybook norms. The talking animals of a thousand children's DVDs take the next logical step and adopt other, less benign, human characteristics. VEAL is anthropomorphization run amok, the real-life versions of product spokes-animals setting the record straight with their youngest and most trusting consumers. Huge-eyed and oversized, the animals recall crib decals, while the bland and scrubbed children mirror the kitsch of Hummel figurines.

The children in VEAL are passive and confused, the cliched "lambs to the slaughter". Yet the slaughter is neither assured nor depicted, only prefigured. My work is about depicting the turning point, making the viewer ask "How did this situation come to be?" and "How is this going to turn out?" It is my intention for my paintings to resemble an illustrated plate long ago torn from its fairy tale book, providing anxiety but no answers.

MAJOR PAINTINGS

Lucky Acrylic on canvas 36"x40"	Entertainment Acrylic on canvas 36"x48"
Murderbird Acrylic on canvas 30"x36"	Geld Acrylic on canvas 36"x40"

STUDIES