'So Much Like Us'

16x20 Acrylic on Canvas 
 
These beautiful, sentient creatures with a complex social structure in the wild often fall victim to human abuse and poaching - forced to live in small cages as pets, or as the subjects of live animal experiments. As activists work to grant them non human personhood, they remain on the IUCN Red List as an endangered species. I was drawn to this fellow - he looks gentle (but just know he could rip your head off), and wise (but silly enough to spit watermelon seeds through his teeth). In his eyes you can see he has a distinct personality of his own and could even be the alpha of his social group.