In her hyperrealistic paintings, artist Lisa Ericson (previously) spotlights the myriad ways animal life and the natural world are connected, a theme she depicts by positioning various species on the backs of others and explains in a new interview. The vivid composites group marine and land creatures in unusual combinations that defy boundaries of habitat and authentic interactions. The underlying subject matter may be based on a real-world issue (coral bleaching, habitat erosion, etc.), but my take on it is not scientific, and I won’t sacrifice the impact of the image for the sake of scientific exactitude. More