From the Shadows
1995
oil, 19 3⁄4" x 23 3⁄4"

The tiger’s awesome display of bold, brash, contrasting colors seems curiously illogical for an animal that relies on stealth and concealment to hunt its prey, but that is nature’s genius—to have evolved a camouflage so striking and yet so effective. Take a tiger out of its natural environment and it will dazzle. Return it to the shadows of its own habitat and the animal simply melts away. I sat on an elephant in India staring into a dark tangle of jungle thicket, desperately trying to see the great cat. And then it moved. Vague, dark shapes became definite black stripes. Yellow eyes and huge, bristling whiskers suddenly materialized and, with great power, deliberation, and arrogance, the tiger moved out from the shadows.