The Old LA Zoo

The inspiration for my Los Angeles Zoo series takes root both in an interest in personal collaborations with nature and in the history that physically surrounds me since my recent relocation to the West Coast. I am inspired by the plant life escaping rusted cages and eroding rock forms and the memory of animals in captivity and the digression from artifice.

This location is the main subject of my current work, with its sepia-toned photographic ghost-town energy, and grids that envelop a former institution that put the natural word both in captivity and on display. As I study the landscape of the LA Zoo in both a holistic sense and in the smaller interactions encountered on individual paths,  I question my location’s history and imagine a monochromatic, colorless view of the zoo’s past in juxtaposition with its current state.

Animal Nursery

Material:
Walnut Ink on Paper

18” x 24”

Wildlife Theater

Material:
Walnut Ink on Paper

18” x 24”

Flight Cage in Red

Material:
Red Conté on Paper

9” x 12”

Ecodisplay in Red

Material:
Red Conté on Paper

9” x 12”

Ecodisplay

Material:
India Ink and White Conté on Paper

18” x 24”

Rock Formation Shelter

Material:
India Ink on Paper

9” x 12”