This slaughtered tiger from Thailand is where the story begins. Since we would be working together so intimately, I believed she deserved a name.  I studied her stripe patterns and found an area that distinguished her to me, as though I could identify her from others tigers.

The name TIGRA was chosen to honor my first kitten.Tigra’s uniquely woven pattern of stripes on her hind section became my focus point to craft this series from.

The subject matter dictated composition. The subject matter itself, dictated composition.  The median of execution ranged from charcoal, reverse image transfer, graphite, to hand printed reliefs. Notice the  warm orange red value appearing in close proximity at the identical location of her body through out the works; this is Tigra’s signature. Did you know that just like human fingerprints, no two tigers have
identical stripes? This basic premise flowed through out the series. 

The series begins with an unidentifiable subject titled “In Vain”.  The story that Judy Mills and Brian Gratwicke tell from www.savethetigerfund.org fills the body of this series.  Images from the field… tiger breeding farms in China, confiscated tiger parts in Thailand, to the successful rescue of a Siberian tiger, named Victor with the help of John Goodrich and his team of Russian colleagues.

When completed, I realized the world had played a hand in what has become tigers fate of facing extinction in the wild, and the world would have to solve this crisis.  Henceforth “Tigers Facing Extinction” was created.  I hope it moves you as it did me.