Deer Boys

I often use deer, or more precisely a hybrid deer/human form, in my work. Deer are a strikingly graceful animal and their social behavior provides a great vehicle for the ideas that I like to explore. In this series I am using the rut as a metaphor for teenage boys, actually the behavior I’m interested in usually extends well beyond teenage hood. The rut refers to the mating period of deer. During the rut, especially the height of the season, the bucks have only one thig on their minds – to chase down as many receptive partners as possible. The thought is so pervasive that they literally forget everything else. They neglect to eat, sleep, and lose all caution, they literally place their lives in danger for a chance to get off. This overwhelming invisible force is what I’m interested in with this work. The urge is all encompassing, and each Deer Boy is dealing with it the best he can.