The painting is a composition of two pictures, one taken during a trip to the Peruvian Amazon and another in the Peruvian Andes. After a long day puttering up the Marañon river our boat was tied up against a tree along the shore. I spent a few moments worrying whether or not we would start silently floating away in the middle of the night but was quickly distracted by the spectacle unfolding before me. As the clouds changed colours and night fell upon the jungle, I could hear how the songs of birds were slowly replaced by croacking frogs and humming insects blending together to create a soothing white noise. As I stood there soaking in the tranquillity and enjoying a newfound connection with nature, a plastic bag floated by jerking me back to the sad reality of things. It was the second time an otherwise perfect moment was ruined by man’s waste. A few months earlier in Ayacucho I spent a morning reaching a lookout point with a panoramic view over the town. Unfortunately, once we got there I found that it was surrounded by abandoned souvenir stalls and a derelict theme park which detracted from the otherwise beautiful view of the valley. I was conflicted between wanting to create something to represent the serenity of the moment I experienced that evening with the moment of despair I felt in Ayacucho. So I decided to try and give new life to the elephants on the abandoned carousel and force myself to look at that which we try to ignore or keep out of the picture.