Rats with wings

Rats are opportunists unashamed by the waste of other animals, who thrive in the squalid biproduct of civilisation. Uncountable, unlovable and unstoppable, not caring that they are universally loathed, their only offense was choosing indignity over extinction.

Rare urban foxes with their matted tails - ungroomed, unkempt and uninvited - grin as they flash us grim mirrors: this is you, they say, this is opportunity.

Yet the most grievous contempt is reserved for the pigeons, who squandered mankind's most precious dream. Icarus was reduced to making wings out of wax, while these creatures - undeserving, untethered, unconcerned - callously embody inspiration and striving without any notion of purity.

There is no more perfect or beautiful summary of humanity: vermin with souls, rats with wings.

This collection of paintings and drawings is a response to this phrase showing humans in surreal encounters with vermin and through the mirrors these beautiful but derided animals provide us with.