I’ve been a student of the work of French artist Antoine Louis Barye most of my life. His work is really some of the best of any animalier. Wanting to make animal sculptures that are my own and have the same spirit of dynamism and strong motifs, I landed on this symbol from Christendom. Yet something always stuck with me as an American and raised in the Catholic tradition, the men in my world haven’t always been the strongest or the best role models. This symbol of the big male lion fighting a serpent seemed somehow inauthentic to me. Raised by a single Mother and very proud of her efforts and grace, I wouldn’t have made it without her, I began to think about the natural dynamic of the pride. The female lioness is the strength and glue of a pride. She protects the young, leads in the hunt and to me seemed a closer version of the symbol of strength than the lion as king. So this work took shape as one reflection on that old power dynamic between strength and wisdom, but as a second meaning about the lioness and how her strength is equal to the survival of the group. This is a digital work, sculpted in the computer from digital ‘clay’ and 3D printed into a 13 inch tall statue. I take and fill these objects with cement to lock in a permanence and then cold patina with bronze powders and pigment.