Infestations Series

We do not speak of infestations of wildflowers or flamingos. The word is reserved for what we have decided is undesirable—vermin, weeds, life that disrupts what we value. “Infestation” is not a neutral condition, but a human judgment: a naming that reveals more about our priorities than about the beings themselves. Outside that frame, these species are simply living—often thriving—indifferent to our preferences.

In this series, I bring that tension into view by combining meditative ink line-shapes with edited prints of birds—primarily raptors—drawn from Audubon’s nineteenth-century catalog of American birds. The birds hunt, feed, and contend with one another, perched on or moving through the black ink forms, seemingly unaware of them. The ink shapes, in turn, offer no resistance. Each element occupies the same space without acknowledgment.

The question of infestation becomes unstable here. One could read either element as overtaking the other, yet human perception tends to assign that role to the animal—to the animated, consuming body. The work exposes that reflex, asking how quickly we impose hierarchy, threat, and control onto what we see.

The ink elements are painted on Arturo paper and cut by hand, leaving a narrow edge of pale blue. The birds are printed on lightweight Red River paper, all mounted on Rives BFK.

Full-sheet collages measure 19 × 22 inches; vertical formats are 13 × 22 inches. The series is ongoing.