Artist Statement
Neighbors
There has been a rise of coyote sightings in my neighborhood in Oshawa, even recent news of children being attacked and bitten by them. With the news coverage, I realized that coyotes live within urban surroundings, within the man-made constructions of humans. There’s a coyote warning sign posted along a path that I walk regularly, no more than a 5-minute walk from my house. Yet, I have never seen a coyote. I wanted to learn more about them.
Many people feel that coyotes should be relocated or put down rather than the city just putting up warning signs. I am of the opposite opinion. I feel terrible that children have been attacked but education and prevention can help this issue. Coyotes have a right to live in urban settings; the continuation of urban sprawl means that wildlife is losing more of its natural habitat. Coyotes found a way to live in urban habitats and I feel they should continue to live here.
After researching the matter, I found that coyotes have become accustomed to living in urban settings and are great at adapting to new environments. Coyotes living close to humans need to pass unseen by people to live next to them. People often disturb the coyote’s hunting and the highest death rate for them is getting hit by cars. Coyotes also do not need any human help to find food or shelter. They are territorial animals that live alone or in small family groups. Killing or relocating coyotes will never work because when a territory becomes vacant another coyote will move in to fill it. Not to mention, coyotes are incredibly smart. They are nocturnal and will spend most of their time patrolling their territories, making them difficult to find.
My work aims to be a documentary highlighting the fact that coyotes are living among us and have kept their distance from people. I wanted to show the possible behaviors coyotes exhibit in urban neighborhoods, hence why all my illustrations are at night and why there is a confluence between the animal and its surroundings. I also wanted to include a fox in my depiction of our hidden neighbors as they are just as wild as coyotes and should have the same respect and distance when spotted.
My work has been done on wood painting panels incorporating metals and metallic paint to show the divide between nature and urbanization. The large scale of my illustrations is to help reinforce the presence of coyotes and the lands they live in.