A New Surface for Contemporary Painting
I paint on leather made from invasive lionfish, Burmese python, and carp, transforming materials created through invasive-species removal into a new surface for contemporary painting.
Unlike canvas, every hide arrives with its own scales, scars, patterns, and irregularities. I don't cover those characteristics. I work with them. A scale pocket can become a bird. Natural texture can suggest water, movement, or reflected light. The material participates in the composition.
Because no two animals are physically identical, no two painting surfaces can ever be identical either. Each artwork therefore can never be recreated exactly.
As far as I've been able to determine, I am the first fine artist to use invasive-species leather as a primary surface for painting.
The work was profiled by Popular Science in 2025.
The Materials
Invasive Lionfish
Cutting and tiling these small skins creates intricate seams and fine natural texture. Dozens of individual hides can become a single painting, producing a surface that catches paint and light differently across every section.
Invasive Burmese Python
The scale pattern and extraordinary size of the animal remain physically present in the finished work. Rather than disguising them, I use those existing structures as part of the painting.
Invasive Carp
Raised scale pockets and irregular surfaces create dimensional texture that can become water, reflected light, movement, or even individual birds within the image.
Removal Creates the Medium. Art Creates the Demand.
Invasive species are removed through fisheries, wildlife-management programs, and other ecosystem-protection efforts. Their skins are processed into leather rather than discarded.
I purchase that leather and transform it into original paintings. When collectors acquire the work, their purchase creates demand for invasive-species leather and helps fund continued removal.
Removing invasive species gives native wildlife and habitats a better opportunity to recover.
Impact You Can Trace
Each artwork documents the species and number of skins it contains, along with the source region when known. Collectors receive this information with the artwork as part of its provenance and material history.
Collect Art With a Real Story Beneath the Surface.
Explore one-of-a-kind paintings created from materials unlike anything else in contemporary fine art.