Pride of Philadelphia 

Julie Bell painted this scene of lions, likely in the late 20th or early 21st century, with oil on canvas. Her chosen medium, with its rich, tactile qualities, lends a classical feel to the work. But let's consider this material more closely. Oil paint is made with pigments that were historically hard to come by, even dangerous to produce, ground with painstaking effort into a binding medium. Today, of course, it is available for purchase in any art supply store. Bell engages with the traditional genre of animal portraiture and fantasy illustration. Her expertise is evident in the smooth application of paint, and the illusionistic rendering of form and texture. This is not craft in a conventional sense, but it represents many hours of devoted labor. It invites us to consider the value and the politics of time, skill, and the choices artists make in what and how they represent the world.