My latest painting series, “Unnatural History,” examines the relationships between people and other animals using images collected from the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Upon one of my first visits I was immediately struck by the distracting reflections of the museum patrons upon the glass of the animals’ display cases.

The reflections open multiple planes, fracturing the image, and forming unconventional spaces. I want to emphasize this effect in my paintings to open a dialogue regarding issues such as human interference within the animal kingdom, morbid curiosity, or how both love and cruelty motivates people to hunt the creatures and display them in an attempt to mimic life. A lot of times this is the only way we can get close to wild animals since they have no desire to get close to us.

By incorporating different painting styles, textures, and techniques into one image, I invite the viewer to examine the relationships between the styles and how they compliment each other like the way one analyzes colors and shapes in an abstract painting.