This painting depicts a praying mantis with the face of a woman. The subject stands in a field of personified flowers, each of them looking on at the creature with expressions of shock and woe. This work is part of a series by the artist influenced by the ancient Latin poet Ovid’s poem The Metamorphoses and cartoons like Merry Melodies and Looney Toons. In both sets of narratives, there is a crossover from the human world to the natural/animal world. Humans become animals, while plants have human traits. This painting explores the eerie and humorous space that connects these two realms.

Sarah Alice Moran bleeds and soaks pigments onto unprimed canvas to create magic paintings that conjure a primal feminine force. In Moran’s universe, there is darkness in rainbows, comfort in the presence of ghosts and an entire bestiary of supernatural familiars. The artist's compositions contain contradictions, often overlaying flat iconography atop scenes with depth and realism while combining humor with the macabre. At the same time, the artist creates fully-realized characters with a minimum of mark-making. Moran's paintings aim to redefine power and strength by highlighting moments of intuition, communication and contemplation. The artist's work is witchy in the ancient, alchemical, abject-feminine sense; yet, it is also grounded in our contemporary moment, with influences ranging from the painter Balthus to the cartoon character Scooby-Doo.