Small Children Admire Small Lovable Beasts with Fuzzy Coats And Fluffy Tails

Egg Tempera on vellum & 22k gold leaf 8” x 5 5/8” (double matted 15” x 12”), 2011

About the piece:
My brother and sister are still tiny children here in what looks to me like an illustration for a 1940s children’s book. The kids are all clean and shiny and my sister reminds me of Shirley Temple in her little dress.

 

About the series:
Each image in the Children and Beasts manuscript series came from studying medieval manuscripts and referencing early bestiaries, (collections of moralized fables about actual or mythical animals). Children feel a kinship with animals; both are felt to be untainted by the artificial structures of human civilization and remain natural and innocent. What better way to illustrate our middle class concepts of nostalgia and an ideal childhood than to merge these principles; the innocence of the ideal Western childhood with the charm, humor and imaginative aspect of the Medieval Bestiary?

All the of the titles are generated by mimicking the language, titles and descriptions of manuscripts and paintings on panel that I find in the many books on this subject that I keep in my studio.