Ford's Bestiary in Europe is not as violent as his other work and shows his interest in the role of humans and their view of nature. Here the villagers use torches to rid the area of a black panther. Whose habitat is whose and where must lines be drawn are ideas brought forth in this image as well as the question of how many weren't as lucky as this panther to get away.

Walton considered himself "not a minimalist but a maximalist" and wishes to take his photos even further. He wishes to be able to make pieces that consist of a sexy monkey or even an elephant with an erection.

Walton likes to play with the idea of Attraction and Repulsion. His work at first is very visual appealing with bright colors and very interesting animals as subjects. Then hits you with the repulsion when you look closer and discover what is really occurring in the photo is dark in manner and cruel in nature.

Walton gets many ideas from that of Audubon and others text they write themselves about their adventures and also about their past. Audubon's mother kept many animals around the house and he has a vivid memory of a certain instance when a monkey decided that a bird needed to meet a certain fate. The monkey for no purpose took a beloved pet bird and killed it. Walton recreates this tale in a very appealing fashion.

Here Walton literately plays on the role of the naturalist when nature takes its tole on them itself. The fact that nature is cruel even to humans is shown in this piece as the lion attacks its viewer as turns of the observer.

Walton's more recent work deals with cinema and the depiction of the famous King Kong. The early film consisted of a hideous gorilla with a face that would only scare those of the human race. Walton works with the faces unseen by viewers that did not involve rage and destruction, the focus of the film. He shows the scared and worried nature of the beast as it is unsure of what had been occurring to his and the constant screaming that he encounters.

The tale of the Passenger Pigeons, early Americans most numerous bird was recreated to make one of Walton's most mesmerizing works. The floating like nature of the bird covered branch as they fall due to the overwhelming amount of birds creates a aw moment. The flocks of these birds consisted of millions of members and would take 14 hours to pass. The sky turn dark and the trees would crack from their landing. They were then hunted at mass amount thinking there is so many but the colonist killed them all. Walton plays on their once crazy role in the world to their destruction.

The Death of the Carolina Parakeet

Here you can see Walton's sense of humor as he recreates the work of Benjamin West entitled "The Death of General Wolfe" but replaces all people with that of the extinct Carolina Parakeet. This piece shows not only the importance of nature preservation but how it relates to the destructive nature of the colonialist who did not take in to account their actions and what cost they really could cause.

Walton agains plays on the frantic and dangerous aspect of nature as these crows set fire to the beauty of what was this peacocks tail. The fact that beauty exist but can be fragile and taken by those who oppose it is shed forth by Ford.

Here again Walton shows his over-raw emotion to shows the true way of nature and that it is more than just a pretty Audubon painting. Walton wants to show what Audubon wouldn't but might have seen out in nature. Here a duck doesn't see its reflection but instead in attempting to drown a potential enemy or mate.

Walton Ford's Elephant plays on the fable of the blind men and the elephant. Each blind man gripping a different limb and trying to discover what an elephant actually amy be and look like. One has the tusk and says its like a tree, another grabs the leg and says sturdy like a tree, and another the tail like a paintbrush. Walton divides the elephant into sections with a different bird inhabiting each section not aware of what may be occurring in the other but wondering.

Forsaken

This piece entitled "Forsaken" plays even more on Sir Richard Burton as he imagines what must have happened when Sir Richard had to return to Britain and stop his study. Here the Wife is "Forsaken", upset, depressed, and longing for her lost lover. Walton's imagination and melodrama come into light as he takes things to the next step.

Monkey Banquet

This piece titled Monkey Banquet plays on the practices and experiments of Sir Richard Burton. Sir Richard was a 19th century colonial naturalist who acquired 40 monkeys in an attempt to discover the monkey vocabulary and eventually the entire monkey language. The young British officer had the monkeys sit around a table as servants served each their proper meal. He had a certain fascination with a silky monkey in which he called it his Wife and she sat in a baby chair to next to him. Here Walton plays on the almost ridiculous sounding tale of the Sir Richard Burton and his attempt at research.

Walton Ford | Art21 | PBS

This is a link to the Walter Ford Art21 video brought to you by PBS. Born in 1960 in Larchmont, New York Walton had a fascination with the American Museum of Natural History. He became in a way a young aspiring naturalist as he began to sketch the exhibits often. He originally wanted to be a film maker graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design but soon aimed his creative talents in a different form of art, watercolor paintings. Walton uses a combination of techniques to recreate images that resemble the work of the well-known french american painter of birds and many more, John James Audubon. He simultaneously celebrates his work but also critiques history and these type of "heroes" with a slight repositioning. Here you can see Walton's odd but charming sense of humor. Though dark in a way he draws to importance many unknown features that the early adventurer, colonialist, naturalist in america consisted of.

Limed Blossoms

Walton Ford's Limed Blossoms is a made of a six plate hardground etching. It uses other elements such as aquatint, dry point, scraping, and burning to create a vivid image. Its similarities to a true watercolor painting such as John James Audubon would be hard to distinguish. This image shows Ford's dark humor as the hummingbirds who must drink from certain flowers meet their fate as the plant has adapted to feed on them in contrast to the norm.