When you ask someone what they know about cheetahs, the first thing that you will hear is that they are endangered. The second thing that you will hear is that they are elegant and fast.

Calling a cheetah endangered is such a universally accepted and repeated fact that we often forget the seriousness of this statement.

In a time where their endangered status is almost normalized, my art seeks to depict their hope in a fresh perspective, emphasizing their resilience and vitality through the eyes of an optimistic young adult.

Before they become the elegant and poised cats that we know, they enter a young adult phase where their curiosity is at its peak, and they are free to explore their world. Everything is new and exciting, and their energy fuels them to learn and understand their surroundings.

The glimmer of childish joy is vivid in their eyes. My goal is to show a side to these cats that is more relatable to our own lives. No matter your age, every day holds new challenges and lessons. Every day we have the possibility to grow as individuals.

For them, these opportunities die the day they disappear from our planet. Around 6500 adult individuals still exist today. As the gene pool becomes smaller, their chance of survival dwindles even more.