Statement

I have an academic background in religious studies, and for several years, I used the sacrificial animals from the Bible as source material for my art. While my older work used these animals (goats, sheep, cows, doves) to explore the phenomenon of scapegoating, my most recent work, inspired in part by Dolly the cloned sheep, asks the question: what would happen if the DNA sequence of a plant or mushroom were spliced with that of an animal? Using graphite, watercolor, and walnut ink on paper as well as directly on gallery walls in site-specific installations, I portray animals emerging from, eating, and morphing with branches, mushrooms, berries, and blossoms, thus forming implausible hybrid creatures.

Amy Ross