As an anxious and fearful child, animals were something that I felt I could relate to far more easily than humans, and growing up on the edge of a dairy farm, I spent a lot of time in the fields with the cows. I saw my own fear and feelings of lack of agency reflected in them, but also beauty, sensitivity and an intensely burning life force, despite their circumstances. This is how I still feel whenever I am around livestock today. This painting is about that feeling and about the longing for and fear of connection, always just a bit out of reach.
As an anxious and fearful child, animals were something that I felt I could relate to far more easily than humans, and growing up on the edge of a dairy farm, I spent a lot of time in the fields with the cows. I saw my own fear and feelings of lack of agency reflected in them, but also beauty, sensitivity and an intensely burning life force, despite their circumstances. This is how I still feel whenever I am around livestock today. This painting is about that feeling and about the longing for and fear of connection, always just a bit out of reach.