I am delighted and proud to present my most recent paintings musing on the relationship between animals and humans. I often find myself thinking about their perspective of us. Who do they think we are? Do they judge us as wise, foolish, or simply as just another mammal? Every animal that I’ve shared eye contact with, whether my dog or a deer in the wild, seem to see right through me. They don’t hesitate to gaze directly into my eyes and I feel certain they know something that I cannot understand. It feels like it’s an abstract concept to the human or an invisible reality that we haven’t grasped, yet they embody. Throughout history, the rose has had many meanings from true love, to the divine feminine, to peace and sacred blessings to political symbolism and bloodshed. In this collection of paintings, to me the rose feels symbolic of humans’ brilliance and beauty as well as our destruction and demise. The rose displays breathtaking loveliness and purity, yet it also displays seduction and impermanence. The petals, in all their velvet luxury, lure us in yet the thorns protect its own self, discouraging engagement. In this collection of paintings, Tales from a Rose Garden, humans have become extinct and the animals remain. The rose portrays the link between what was human and the animal’s perception of our behavior.