Zoo! Creatures of Curiosity is a collection of aesthetically strange and unusual animals accompanied by prepostorous tales of origin. The project is a collaboration between an all-things-large-and-small animal loving vegan and an unapologetic carnivore with a conscience. Addison and Jennifer have created a bantam catalog of leviathanian proportions, whose goal is to inspire thought provoking conversations about the outrageous treatment of animals-both past and present. Without serious intervention into the destruction of wildlife habitats and continued experimentation on animals-wild and domestic-is a two-headed ostrich or a one-eyed Grizzly bear really that far off? "Without these creatures large and small, hairless and woolly, I believe we as humans would not completely understand and acknowledge the power and emotion of empathy. And it is to this end that Addison and I have written and illustrated this book: though they are imagined, every creature represents a real life animal that deserves our strength and devotion, our compassion and an unwavering championing of respect and a realization that they too matter." -Jennifer Weitman
About the Author: Jennifer Weitman: Since childhood Jennifer thought she would be a librarian when she grew up. She practiced reading allowed to her dolls and stuffed animals, each lined up on her bed listening attentively as their young owner practiced her reading voice and expression. As she got older, her dream of becoming a proponent of children's literature diminished and eventually was replaced with aspirations of becoming a fill-in-the-blank who wrote. Working closely with her great friend Karl Addison on their first book Zoo! Creatures of Curiosity her goal has been reached and she hopes that their creative partnership will flourish so that she doesn't have to "fill in the blank" anymore. Jennifer graduated from Seattle University's creative writing program. This is her first book. Karl Addison: "I like the idea of taking back public space and giving someone a reason to look down the street, up at the walls, and not at their shoes. It's so easy to become numb to your environment with the amount of ads trying to sell you something all the time." -Addison, interview with The Stranger As Karl Addison's art and vision evolves-from blank slate, to pen, to paper, to mural, to installation, to unoccupied public space-so does our understanding and comprehension of the world around us. We may not notice his input, infiltrating our subconscious-our everyday-but it's there. His purpose (it seems) is three-fold: to amuse us the first time we discover one of his pieces, to draw us in-inviting us to take a closer look, and to make us stop and see every minute detail-and in a sense, to stop and see him. He wants us to value his tiny lines, his details, to appreciate his world-view and hopefully, start extolling the tiny details in our own lives. Addison currently lives and creates in Berlin. This is his second book.