I have recently scripted three digital artist's books, called the "Dog Star Trilogy", that plot the concerns of saving this particular life form, lycoan pictus, from genetic extinction. The first unit records my artwork presented in celebration of the characteristic fur markings of these dogs, which are as distinctly individual as our human fingerprints. The second "book" plots the zooalogical management of a metapopulation of wild dogs, in order to preserve their genetic diversity. And, the third unit contrasts the sense of the dogs in their natural wilderness with the confines of the conservation programmes. 

As I have observed these animals and empathised with their particular characteristics, I have entered the orbit of conserving earth's life forms.      

the right of native life forms

and the rites of passage as a native life form.

My recent review of the fairytale of Little Red Riding Hood, provided a format for the translation of the wolf

into the South African "lycaon pictus", the painted wolf, or African wild dog. The forest became the alien trees that

 make up the canopy of Johannesburg cityscape. Both are condemned to extinction.

I have positioned my concept of the sacred within the nature of the land... creating a "cathedra natura" ... in celebration of the indigenous and alien life forms. This visual articulation of a "cathedra natura" enters the debate of the indigenous versus the exotic, which is a determined agenda in the government policies of land and water management in the new South Africa.