Red on black, venom back

Red on black, venom back. Red on yellow, kill a fellow. This is a well-known, folky rhyme to remember which snakes are poisonous. This body of work is inspired by this phrase and how powerful visual codes in the natural world truly are and how or if they correlate to visual codes in human culture such as in design, sports, architecture, and fashion.

In nature, predator and prey manipulate the elements and principles of art to live, survive, and communicate. Line, shape, form, space, color, and texture assist in defining oneself visually against or within a specific context. This could also be said in human culture. How do we direct and participate in our visual culture and what we choose to blend in with or stand out against in order to feel safe? During the drawing process, I question what visual codes do I know, follow, mesh, dilute, or create to form a visual representation in order to survive or thrive in a current environment? This work was initiated in 2016 and is an ongoing project.