I see my main task as an artist as being to confront and control chaos. In order to authentically do that, I begin with pouring chaotic paint splashes and searching the chaos for meaning. Because of my deep dive into chaos, I’ve been christened “The Chaos Whisperer”. This lion began with an open-ended pour on paper and the subsequent phases of observing, searching and ascribing meaning to the shapes and textures, followed by adding the details and stitching together the chaos and the order using ink, graphite and paint. The lion is one of my favorite animals and my family tree has a lion chained to a tree so I’ve come back to it many times as a subject. This lion represents a kingship or mastery of his domain which can include some very chaotic scenarios.