2nd Prize Winner, BearWolf Books Emerging Artist Award 2026

Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize 2026

Shelby Clark-Glass

Title:

“Persecution Through Anthropomorphism” 

Medium & Dimensions:

 Polymer clay, acrylics, wood, 12 x 12 x 8in

About the Artist

Shelby Clark-Glass is a sculptor based in the Southeastern United States. Her work is derived from a love of nature and literature, as well as a deep respect of wildlife. She currently lives in Jacksonville with her husband and their group of rescue pets.

“Persecution Through Anthropomorphism”: Anthropomorphism – the attribution of human traits to animals has shaped human culture for centuries. From Aesop’s fables to medieval bestiaries and modern media, animals have been assigned moral roles that often masquerade as natural truth. Sheep and goats illustrate this clearly: despite their close biological relationship, sheep symbolize righteousness while goats are linked to sin, the devil, and the scapegoat through religious and cultural narratives. In reality, they simply reflect different survival strategies, not moral character. As Richard Adams wrote in Watership Down, animals exist outside human ethics. By projecting our values onto them, we reveal more about ourselves than the natural world.