Michael McConnell

Artist Statement

Making art is how I make sense of the world and my forgotten childhood. Observing my own anxieties and awkwardness I create visual narratives that examine loneliness, responsibility, and choice. In my work the innocence and vulnerability associated with children and animals is constrained. These stories unfold in the space between memory and nostalgia, and focus on the tension between youth and maturity. In the sculptures, composed of discarded stuffed animals sewn over taxidermy forms, I am observing how childhood and adulthood circle one another. The forms usually used as hunting trophies have now become the mementos of a lost childhood.