Conceptual 1st place winner

I will always remember the moment that I came into contact with a wild vixen whilst walking a dimly lit path on the outskirts of my hometown. Through Totem I wanted to capture the heart-stopping moment when the wild breaches the barriers of the city and reminds us that the line between humans and wildlife is not as clear-cut as we would like to believe in, and that in the animal kingdom, the only thing we can count on is unpredictability, that the unexpected should be expected.

Jason McGroarty is an Irish artist best known for his conceptual work exploring the relationship between wildlife and the human experience, often blending components of nature with civilization. Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1992, he was raised in Co. Donegal in the Northwest of the Isle. McGroarty spent his formative years between poverty-ridden council estates and the nurturing beauty of the Irish wilderness, his work inhabits the space where opposing realities meet. McGroarty was raised by his mother, who lived with manic bipolar disorder and the all-too-familiar disease of addiction. Through nature, he learned to understand his mother, his surroundings and the fragile threshold linking darkness and light, wilderness and home.