Fleas & Ticks
We all have parasites: thoughts, situations, behaviors, and even other people in our lives that bleed us dry. These parasites grow, feed, and are sheltered by us while literally contributing nothing to our own survival, living completely off the host.
Hopefully we finally detect these parasites and decide what to do about it. We come face to face with the parasite exposing it for what it is and begin the process of extracting it from our lives.
I wanted to draw this discovery and process. I chose fleas and ticks because having dogs I have firsthand experience with them both. Ticks sit around on the tips of grasses and shrubs waiting for the host to brush by. They are capable of crawling very long distances to get to a safe, undetected spot to attach to and often go unnoticed feeding slowly. Fleas can jump and run, living on the ground or in floor cracks or furniture. Vibrations and/or an increase in carbon dioxide stimulate adults to emerge from their hiding places. Fleas have powerful hind legs that are well adapted for jumping and running through hair and feathers.
These charcoal drawings of fleas and ticks are meant to expose and exaggerate their parasitic traits of jumping, crawling, leaping, grabbing, biting, feeding, and attaching. Now, all is out in the open and no longer hidden or subversive.
We all have parasites: thoughts, situations, behaviors, and even other people in our lives that bleed us dry. These parasites grow, feed, and are sheltered by us while literally contributing nothing to our own survival, living completely off the host.
Hopefully we finally detect these parasites and decide what to do about it. We come face to face with the parasite exposing it for what it is and begin the process of extracting it from our lives.
I wanted to draw this discovery and process. I chose fleas and ticks because having dogs I have firsthand experience with them both. Ticks sit around on the tips of grasses and shrubs waiting for the host to brush by. They are capable of crawling very long distances to get to a safe, undetected spot to attach to and often go unnoticed feeding slowly. Fleas can jump and run, living on the ground or in floor cracks or furniture. Vibrations and/or an increase in carbon dioxide stimulate adults to emerge from their hiding places. Fleas have powerful hind legs that are well adapted for jumping and running through hair and feathers.
These charcoal drawings of fleas and ticks are meant to expose and exaggerate their parasitic traits of jumping, crawling, leaping, grabbing, biting, feeding, and attaching. Now, all is out in the open and no longer hidden or subversive.