Humans are not the only animals currently suffering from a deadly pandemic. Since March 2020, rabbits, hares, and pikas, all known scientifically as Lagomorphs, have been suffering from a virus (RHDV-2) that has a 70% - 100% death rate. The virus has been spread by human travel throughout the Southwest of the United States threatening wild rabbits with extinction. I am making a series of paintings to honor the lives of these beautiful, charming, and innocent animals titled: "Elegy for Another Species".

Wild rabbits are particularly important to our ecosystems because they have been an important and prolific source of food for many larger predators. Without rabbits the food chain is broken and these predators (owls, hawks, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, etc.) will starve or resort to eating pets, livestock, and human made trash.

A cascade of damage to the ecological network of life will follow. With this series of paintings, I intend to suggest the vulnerability of our Web of Life and the mortality of all life forms including humans.

These paintings are made using tar collected from the La Brea Tar Pits as a substitute for paint. The tar brings an array of associated meanings to the work. The tar pits are one of the world's largest repositories of remains from extint animals and provide us with physical proof of the cycles of evolution and extinction. Tar is also the unrefined petrochemical used to fuel our economies while it pollutes our environment and causes climate change. Tar is both a vehicle of our scientific knowledge and the fuel that is drives us over the cliff into the void left by a vanishing ecosystem. Painting the image of a rabbit with tar opens many possiblities in its meaning.

At times, words fail me as I struggle to face our human place in the world, so I use these painted images to help me comprehend this moment we live in.


James Griffith


All of the artwork in this online exhibition is available for purchase.
For inquiries, please call 310-913-0749 or email at info@craigkrullgallery.com.