Kevin Veara is fascinated with the density of life in the natural world. There is an elemental aspect to nature that recalls the primordial soup from which all life springs. Nature teems with abundance and beauty, but there is fierceness and danger as well. Miasma represents this for Veara. A miasma is a harmful atmosphere and he wants to demonstrate that we are certainly on the brink. His paintings focus on birds and plants of the Sangamon River Valley, near Springfield, Illinois, that are found in the steep, forested banks and flood plains of the Sangamon River. His array of avian life, native and migratory, are often pictured as encircled by menacingly sharp-leaved plants that remind us of human complicity in climate change, habitat fragmentation, invasive species, and genetic modification.