Analyzing the meaning of insects’ place in the world by manipulating scale, color and focus of importance, I questioned their intrinsic value. The ongoing wars and local atrocities reported in the daily headlines begged the question of our own smallness, vulnerability, and isolation. Putting small scale human figures in “insect” like peril draws the analogy of our own expendability. There is a sickening whimsy in seeing the individual indefensible against the unseen, immense destructive force which is human civilization itself. The ultimate irony, no more absurd than a painted image of a tiny human pinned like a beetle in a display case, is to hear a news report that a newborn was found in a dumpster wrapped in plastic. I want these small paintings to serve as reminders of how easy it is to ignore human suffering.