One autumn leaf started this entire endeavor. Picking up the leaf my thoughts leaped to the passage of time moment by moment. Time had become me a clear concept to me in that time of my life. My wife and I were expecting our first baby only months after I scanned the first leaf. Seeing everything with new eyes I wanted to preserve each leaf the moment I discovered them. I began scanning leaves and other finds to hold on to them. This project at the very least is my subconscious wanting to control time. The want to indulge each moment, capture something, or take a souvenir was increased an incredible amount by the birth of my son.

The reason I choose to work with animal imagery was because I wanted to start over. In my childhood when I began making art it was always animals.
Back in elementary school if I was asked what I wanted to be I would respond "an artist or a zoologist." Drawing and learning about animals was my first passion. This project felt like a fresh start I would learn how to tame this process by creating mammals, birds, reptiles, bugs and fish portraits.
This choice achieved two goals first learning this new process and reconnecting to a joy a child feels when they play with their food. Creativity out of curiosity could sum up this project and my work as a whole.

Starting to make illustrations I wanted to never alter the leaves and petals other than to resize each.The thought for this rule is to treat each scan like a brush stroke in a painting. By layering scan on top of scan using Adobe Photoshop I can create pointillist inspired collages. The goal of this work is to inspire people to slow down and view all around and spot something surprising and beautiful in the everyday. View the world with a set of brand new eyes everyday because the world around us is in a constant state of change.