About the piece:

Gabriel combines his long-time passion and ten-year experience of traditional woodworking with unorthodox methods using metal, stone and other materials to produce surprising wildlife art. By creating beauty, emotion and awareness, he hopes he can contribute to our common project: building a way of living harmoniously with nature. The Ball Python receives its name from its typical behaviour to not bite or hiss when scared but to curl up into a ball to protect its head, this being represented in ‘Scared’. This docile character together with its natural beauty has made the ball python the world’s poster child for the exotic pet trade and victim of unbelievable human cruelty. Even though a large number are bred in captivity, ball pythons are the most traded live African species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and studies published in 2020 indicate that due to fraudulent practices in the legal trade, the ball python could soon be endangered in its natural habitat.

At least 50% of the proceeds from this sale will support the charitable work of David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) and our ground-based conservation partners across Africa and Asia.