Small Girl With Cart & Pedal Driven Transport Regards Curious Hunting Beast

Egg Tempera on vellum & 22k gold leaf 9.25” x 6.5” (double matted 15” x 12”), 2011

About the piece:
This is my oldest daughter right after my second daughter was born. Their father brought this puppy home the same day I came back from the hospital; her name was Susie.

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.