Natalie Wadlington, originally from Modesto, California, earned her BFA from California State University, Stanislaus (2017) and her MFA in Painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield, Michigan (2020). Her practice focuses on richly colored, narrative-driven paintings that explore figuration and storytelling. Wadlington’s characters—wide-eyed with wonder and apprehension—navigate immersive environments and encounters with both wild and domesticated animals, creating metaphorical scenes that examine archetypal narratives of love, conflict, and misjudgment, particularly in the context of our relationship with the animal world.Her work engages the complexity of anthropomorphism, highlighting humanity’s dual capacity for empathy and misunderstanding. By projecting human traits onto animals, we can cultivate care for pets or support environmental causes, yet this same impulse can obscure the understanding of animals’ unique behaviors and needs. Through this lens, Wadlington’s paintings reflect the paradox of human nature—simultaneously compassionate and destructive, loving and harsh. Her figures interact with the animals they encounter in ways that observe, disrupt, question, and reflect upon human behavior, offering symbolic commentary on interpersonal relationships. Ultimately, her work advocates for mutualism, emphasizing the interdependence essential for the well-being of both humans and animals in the shared world they inhabit.