In this project, I use oil painting with original narrative musical compositions to connect histories of extinction to the legacy of collection and categorization in European art. The subjects of my work are remnant specimens of stories that have been plucked from their place in the world and represented on the canvas where their image may be reproduced but their physical forms and functions fade into the past.

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The lonely figures situated in melancholic, ambiguous places are able to be visually studied but are unknowable. It is not until I am able to tell the story of the subject that a viewer might be able to better form an interpretation of the painting.Definition can be helpful but potentially a trap; having an answer can lead to the end of curiosity.