I love to tell stories with my work. Were I to present these situations with humans in them we might be mildly interested. They are, after all, quite familiar. But when animals are suddenly placed in these contexts we must engage with them much more. We must ask questions. Where are they, when are they and what are they up to? Why are they animals, and why those particular animals? I choose to use this period of history because of the extra information afforded by these contexts. Stripped of human faces it is harder to make the usual assumptions about the characters. Normal points of reference are missing (age, gender and ethnicity) so we must look for other markers like dress, situation and action. Because in this era there were strong divides in class and culture evident in these visual markers, it is a useful and highly evocative period to use. In "Two cats on a steam cruise" we see two individuals on a boat. They seem to be well and lightly dressed, suggesting affluence. They are interacting but we cannot tell if they know each other well. The setting is provided, the players are in place, the era evokes an adventurous romanticism. What remains is for the viewer to form their own conclusions.

 

But there is also another reason to use animals: it was common for stories of this era, and before, to feature animal characters. Think of Alice in Wonderland, Peter and the Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood, The Chronicles of Narnia and the stories of Beatrix Potter. The rabbit in the cafe could be a relative of Benjamin Bunny. The roaring lion could be Aslan's brother. In these contexts we are used to engaging in storytelling in a way that we do not with many images which simply present something captured and finished. These paintings remind us of characters from our past, from our childhood or our parent's childhood.

 

And yet there is still more than that for these are real characters. The tiger in the red chair is not a parody of an animal nor of the type of human he resembles. He is something individual and new. The boardroom portrait of the lion conjures as much the carnivore eyeing its prey, as a man in a suit. The costuming of the time, itself bold and stylish, lends gravity and dignity to these people. We borrow from the epic quality of the era when wars raged, struggles played out on huge scale, and people had an unprecedented ability to expand their personal frontiers. For the artist, this is an exciting time to capture. An age of high couture, where seemingly the same style, energy and imagination was poured into everything from streamlined vehicles, intricate skyscrapers to everyday objects.

 

With the removal of humans from these paintings all of these elements will play a strong role in telling the story. Because these scenes are constructed rather than discovered and reproduced, everything becomes an extension of the character and has a reason for being there. Because the paintings require such interaction, they will be different for everyone. What I hope is that people will insert their own references into these pictures, finishing off the stories in ways that are meaningful to them while still being true to the situation that I have presented.

 

 

I use anthropomorphism, the portrayal of animals acting like humans, as a tool to better show character. It can be a difficult area, however. Supplanting humans with animals can be used for many purposes. In children's storytelling it allows the viewer to identify with the character's situation and emotions without being put off by physical differences. Interestingly it can be easier to see yourself as the bear than a boy or girl with red hair, for instance. In this context the effect is two-fold - we see the human in the animal (and learn empathy for animals) and we learn empathy for other humans. In other instances anthropomorphism is used to emphasise differences between animals and humans, the bestial or the sentient, as a point of derision. Or as a way of distracting from a portrayal of social stereotypes that would otherwise be distasteful, such as seeing humans being subjugated by one another. For this reason they have a long history of being used in political cartoons as a way of depicting obvious personalities or groups engaging in ridiculous or patently wrong behaviour.

 

My interest in using anthropomorphism is to explore ideas and characters that are richer from having the attributes of both animals and humans. I hope that we are able to empathise with these characters, share their feelings and gain an appreciation of their lives outside of the paintings. In "The last fare", we are not viewing a picture of a bear dressed as taxi driver, but rather a taxi driver who is a bear. In my imagination, he lives in small apartment with his wife and their baby. On Saturdays, he knocks off work early and returns home, where he likes to sit on the old couch by an open window with faded curtains, and he listens to the ball game while watching the kids (children, bear cubs and rabbits) play in the lane-way below. In the painting is one of the few humans in the exhibition. Her presence makes this bear not just a human equivalent but a real entity of its own. I wonder what they make of each other?

 

This understanding of anthropomorphism is one that also uses our perceptions of animals to highlight universal character traits, such as pride, gracefulness or peacefulness etc. This can be a simple proposition or can work on a few levels. We might pair a likely animal with a likely human as with the Hollywood starlet cat, or we might pair unlikely animals as with the peaceful fox in the cafe. We might also look to thwart some habitual stereotyping that we carry out on either the animals or their human equivalent. Consider the painting "It was always pistachio". Nuns are themselves grouped and rendered faceless by the costume they wear. Here, I take these nuns and give them an overriding character again by combining them with the attributes of ducks. That choice informs the viewer as to their characters - despite preconceptions. As ducks they are transformed becoming benign, friendly and peculiar - sharing equal measures of awkwardness and beauty. The fact that one of them has an ice-cream is a further link to their humanity and a commonality of experience with their fellow creatures.