Reconstructed Fox

72″x 48″
Collage–newspaper, paint, polyurethane
1986
$900

At one time, when most people survived by hunting and farming, it made sense to use the skins of animals for clothing, but today, when we have access to so many other natural and synthetic materials, the killing of animals for coats and hats is primarily a matter of vanity. I do not understand how one can wear a mink or sable coat without some sense of the unnecessary death that is wrapped around her or him.

To create Reconstructed Fox I began by clipping out newspaper images of people in fur coats. I sorted those images into piles according to shading, then painted a background and placed the clippings to create the image of a fox using dark images to create shadows and light images to create highlights.