This painting came from a smaller piece I had made before, and later became part of a commission built around the same idea.

It’s about that strange disappointment of realizing how much cruelty exists in the world, especially when you find it in the places you least expect it. In the original drawing, the figure was a young girl, because to me this realization is also a part of growing up that quiet loss of innocence that happens as you begin to understand the world around you.

The hummingbird looks innocent too, delicate and almost too beautiful to hurt anything, and yet it has flown straight through her.