Artist's Statement:
     I would curse those who, over the hundreds of years, trained pit bulls to fight. A blood sport? Surely an oxymoron. My own wonderful pit suffers their legacy.
     I curse the hunters who bring down that largest of land mammals, the elephant , for the ivory of its tusks.
     My pictures now dwell on these two species and their man-made problems. The pit bull, the victim, shunned. The elephant approaches extinction in the wild where it is hunted. My pictures do not depict these animals bloodied, but rather beautiful.
     I use water media and my brush work is expressionist.

Theron Caldwell Ris