What if Enemies could be Friends…

As with a lot of my artwork, the animals are a metaphor for humanity. The harmony and affection among all of the varied types of cheetahs, is a representation of a utopian world with all different people getting along. Although cheetahs may look different because of different spot patterns or coat colors, they are genetically very closely related. About 12,000 years ago cheetahs nearly went extinct. All cheetahs today are descended from the relatively small number of cheetahs who survived this extinction bottleneck. Like cheetahs, humans have less genetic diversity globally, that most other animals do. About 900,000 years ago, humans also went through a population bottleneck.

Since most of us are very distant cousins, almost family, maybe we should work harder at getting along. Most people on both sides of political, racial, and intellectual divides, get up and go to work in the morning. They love their kids, and enjoy chatting with their neighbors. Under the surface, we are all the same. No race, no social strata, and no religion has a lock on happiness, or unhappiness, on decency or tyranny.

I know that this is overly simplified, and as a white person I can not understand the history that some people have experienced. It is my hope that decency, in the end, will win out.