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Caught (2025) | Graphite on Paper
8 ¼ in x 10 ¾ in.
Caught, is a piece describing the inalienable connection between human overconsumption and animals as it relates to me. After having discovered my first moon jellyfish at the age of six, I became completely entranced with these creatures because of their beautiful iridescent coloring and their jelly-like consistency. Since the jellyfish available to me also did not sting, I loved picking them up and holding them in the palm of my hand before putting them back in the local bay nearby our country house. My sister and I constantly begged our parents to let us bring them home, yet time and time again they refused. My goal in creating this piece was to connect back to this theme of desiring to bring something home, to keep it captive for my own benefit, when in reality it was and always is completely immoral to take an animal out of its own home solely for someone to bring it into theirs. This drawing captures these feelings of displacement, as well as these holes within humanity’s justification for aquariums and these ‘animal viewing rooms’ as it relates to their personal freedoms, through these displaced 3D portions. Human impropriety is captured through the greyness of this piece, as well as this so-called ‘grey-area’ aquariums use to justify the consumption of animal viewing, since they often espouse that the animals are kept in these optimal habitats that they create. The clear barrier along the left side of the page signals the clear captivity of these jellyfish as they slowly pulse between the confines of the tank’s glass walls. I started off by creating multiple sketches of the arrangement and sizing of these jellyfish, before finally settling on this one. Afterward, I made two photocopies of this final sketch and cut out from one copy, the pieces I desired to be displaced. Then, using a thicker drawing paper, I taped these cut out bits to a corresponding piece I had cut out, of the same dimension, from the thicker paper. Finally, I taped each elevated piece onto the second photocopy, while lining it up perfectly with the drawing beneath, before shading in both the displaced portions and the surrounding areas using graphite. Ultimately, through both the composition, shading, and the image captured, Caught highlights this childish innocence in wanting to displace an animal from its home only for a person’s benefit and the cruel impacts doing so can have, and how major corporations lean into this desire by profiting off of these animals, primarily through families and children.
8 ¼ in x 10 ¾ in.
Caught, is a piece describing the inalienable connection between human overconsumption and animals as it relates to me. After having discovered my first moon jellyfish at the age of six, I became completely entranced with these creatures because of their beautiful iridescent coloring and their jelly-like consistency. Since the jellyfish available to me also did not sting, I loved picking them up and holding them in the palm of my hand before putting them back in the local bay nearby our country house. My sister and I constantly begged our parents to let us bring them home, yet time and time again they refused. My goal in creating this piece was to connect back to this theme of desiring to bring something home, to keep it captive for my own benefit, when in reality it was and always is completely immoral to take an animal out of its own home solely for someone to bring it into theirs. This drawing captures these feelings of displacement, as well as these holes within humanity’s justification for aquariums and these ‘animal viewing rooms’ as it relates to their personal freedoms, through these displaced 3D portions. Human impropriety is captured through the greyness of this piece, as well as this so-called ‘grey-area’ aquariums use to justify the consumption of animal viewing, since they often espouse that the animals are kept in these optimal habitats that they create. The clear barrier along the left side of the page signals the clear captivity of these jellyfish as they slowly pulse between the confines of the tank’s glass walls. I started off by creating multiple sketches of the arrangement and sizing of these jellyfish, before finally settling on this one. Afterward, I made two photocopies of this final sketch and cut out from one copy, the pieces I desired to be displaced. Then, using a thicker drawing paper, I taped these cut out bits to a corresponding piece I had cut out, of the same dimension, from the thicker paper. Finally, I taped each elevated piece onto the second photocopy, while lining it up perfectly with the drawing beneath, before shading in both the displaced portions and the surrounding areas using graphite. Ultimately, through both the composition, shading, and the image captured, Caught highlights this childish innocence in wanting to displace an animal from its home only for a person’s benefit and the cruel impacts doing so can have, and how major corporations lean into this desire by profiting off of these animals, primarily through families and children.