This is a painting dealing with the difference of species, in particular man compared with everything else on earth.
I have taken a beach somewhere in africa and I have placed a zebra, a lizard, a bird [with fish in mouth] and our distant relatives Australopithecus and put them all in the same setting.
You will notice upon close inspection that all of the animals in this pictures are all just "existing" they see their environment for what it is and nothing more.
However, you will notice upon looking at the 3 Australopithecus they are seeing beyond simply "surviving" They are seeing that there is something more to this world than just living, breeding, and dying. There is "something" out there in which is worth knowing. Which is why I have placed them in a situation in which they are lifting up the ocean/ sky a if it is a curtain and they are looking behind it to see space.
There is more to this world than simply living, reproducing, and dying. We are the only species out of the great many who has acknowledged this and went on the journey to find whats "out there".
I have also added cameras and a microphone almost as if the universe is watching this all unfold, as if there is some sort of plan that is meant to unravel in the exact way that it is happening. Whether percieved as good or bad.
I add Darwin trapped in my 2 transparent 3D shapes to add a contributing subject matter from a different time period.
Darwin is the man that saw beyond what was apparent in th here and now, that we were special, intelligent and apparently "blessed by a divine creator" and that all other species were mere animals also created and that there is no complex reasoning behind it all beyond "The creator, god, yahweh" made it this way. Darwin realized that species are the way that they are not by chance or by magic, but rather species are how they are and specialize in their environments for a reason. That reason being millions of years of evolution through adaptation and natural selection within the environment. Whether or not any of this has any special signifigance or anything, it has all happened and it is causing more change that will lead to something else which will also happen regardless.
It all seems like something that is orchestrated and watched over, but we cant really be sure about it.
I have also done a time lapse painting video in which I have condensed 30+ hrs or so of work into around 17 min.
This video includes the following steps of the painting