Gorillas in the Toile

My work is driven by my interest in animal behavior and evolution. I have become increasingly fascinated with the inner lives of higher primates (gorillas), and how they relate to our own.

In order to observe animal behavior, I have been regularly drawing at a public zoo for the last 15 years. "Gorillas in the Toile" is a series inspired by traditional toile* wallpaper patterns and some of my experiences drawing in public at the zoo. I have created toile patterns that examines the ideas of civilization, with its’ often humorous self-conscious attention to class, society and aesthetics, and the animal world, with it’s presumed freedom from such constrictions.

*By definition, toile is a repeating motif that often tells the story of refined rural life, images of historical events and pastoral scenes that came into vogue in France and England in the mid 1700’s.