Entirely within the character of Street Artist ROA, his new piece in Rome addresses the underlying rift between man and nature. The urban naturalist is known for his depictions and portraits of creatures who share the earth with us, often endangered or otherwise misused at the hand of man. In town for his solo show, “Suovetaurilla”, at the Dorothy Circus Gallery, ROA painted this particular bear kid who was famously orphaned this summer.

The case of his mother attacking a human hunting mushrooms in the forests of Trentino and open public deliberations about the ethics of killing or capturing her was openly discussed and debated in grocery stores, beauty parlors, and halls of government. It even sparked an online petition drive that gathered more than 120,000 signatures to protect her from being punished while behaving like a bear.