How do we become a native? Is it a descriptor that may be applied to someone only after a certain amount of time has passed? Or perhaps how well we assimilate into our new environment? To be the first to arrive, or is it a label we can't apply to ourselves.. one that must be earned or bestowed upon us by those that came before.
the Island series
This series began as a distillation of our own small New Zealand islands into an even smaller environment. The tableau's compress the interactions between the native wildlife and the colonial immigrants that became the new locals. Each island artwork varies in content but all hold the same concerns... That an island is a fragile ecosystem and each participant affects the overall health, resources and sustainability of that small environment