Hi friends, its been a very long time since I've added anything onto here, because I've been doing lots of things and have been super busy! Since my last post I've had two really fun projects that have been and gone, and I'm now heading towards the end of my second year at uni which has gone so so so fast its unbelievable. But its been so much fun and really has made me into so much more of an artist, and helped me to define my style and improve my work, etc etc. Since my Number through Print project, I felt inspired and excited to up my game a little, and I suppose, take university a little more seriously than I had previously done. In doing this, I've really seen some results, and I've also ended up enjoying my work, not only the final outcome but the whole creative process also, a lot more than I had done in my first year, or even the first couple of projects in the second. Theres something so rewarding about creating content and artwork that I actually like, rather than just being happy that I made it to the deadline with something to show for it! These projects have pushed my creative process, and my work ethic to the limit, and i'm definitely realising more and more over time they best ways in which to work to achieve the results that I want!
So this was the next project following Number through Print; Social Awareness. At the beginning of this project, as I am with most, I was overwhelmed by the choices of topic that were available to me under the umbrella of this extremely vague title. Social awareness could of course cover anything from environmental issues, to social issues, and anything in between. Thats a lot of topics, so I began by briefly covering a lot of them through my research then realised that realistically I had to narrow my ideas down to two before I could carry on any further (and by this point I was already two weeks into the five week project which was a slightly scary position to be in). So I whittled my topics down to two, which were the political issues surrounding the current state of the North Korean government and the general state of the country, or basically the general Animal Rights debate. Both topics interest me greatly, however my growing amount of research was leaning towards the ethical treatment of animals, therefore thats the route I went down! To cut a long story short, I spent the next month heavily researching all there is to know about the mistreatment of animals throughout the world (obviously not all there is to know because that would be madness, but I did read a lot) and I became almost obsessed with the subject, shedding a tear over various films/videos that I watched as part of my research, of which I shall leave links to at the end of this post.
This question became so frequent in my mind, and still does even now the project is over, how in the year 2015 are we still allowing these atrocious acts of utter exploitation to occur after so many attempts to raise awareness of the issues? How in this age does society knowingly turn a blind eye at the atrocities that take place on this earth, for the purpose of sustaining the shape of consumer culture that we are fixed into? I focused my research towards many topics, including mistreatment of animals used as entertainment (zoos, circuses, aquariums, theme parks, roadside attractions), exploitation of animals used within the fur/skin industry, mistreatment of animals used as medical experiments, and exploitation of animals used within the meat/poultry farming industry. Each of these are as shocking as each other, yet I felt that the farming industry was something that I needed to address, as I feel that there are many people that simply do not know enough about their food, and I know for a fact that many would be encouraged to re-think the way that they live their lives, had they researched the topic as intensely as I had. Basically, in uncovering all of this information that I had done in this time I realised that people needed to see this and learn more. There are free range farms all over the world, where farm animals have relatively pleasant lives, they aren't mistreated, and they are able to roam free in fresh air and live out their instinctual behaviours. Then, there are intensive factory farms, where animals suffer an inherently different fate. This is what I wanted to portray through my artwork. To do this I decided to create a twelve page zine (miniature magazine) following the life of a factory farmed pig in North Carolina. Heres the zine, and on my website is some separate artwork from this project also:
Thanks for reading/looking at the pictures!
These are a few of the films/documentaries that have aided my research. These are of course from a distinctively animal rights fundamentalist point of view, therefore are pretty shocking. Of course this is a topic that has many opinions, and these are videos made with only one in mind, something to consider while watching. Take a look.
Death on a factory farm - HBO:
So this was the next project following Number through Print; Social Awareness. At the beginning of this project, as I am with most, I was overwhelmed by the choices of topic that were available to me under the umbrella of this extremely vague title. Social awareness could of course cover anything from environmental issues, to social issues, and anything in between. Thats a lot of topics, so I began by briefly covering a lot of them through my research then realised that realistically I had to narrow my ideas down to two before I could carry on any further (and by this point I was already two weeks into the five week project which was a slightly scary position to be in). So I whittled my topics down to two, which were the political issues surrounding the current state of the North Korean government and the general state of the country, or basically the general Animal Rights debate. Both topics interest me greatly, however my growing amount of research was leaning towards the ethical treatment of animals, therefore thats the route I went down! To cut a long story short, I spent the next month heavily researching all there is to know about the mistreatment of animals throughout the world (obviously not all there is to know because that would be madness, but I did read a lot) and I became almost obsessed with the subject, shedding a tear over various films/videos that I watched as part of my research, of which I shall leave links to at the end of this post.
This question became so frequent in my mind, and still does even now the project is over, how in the year 2015 are we still allowing these atrocious acts of utter exploitation to occur after so many attempts to raise awareness of the issues? How in this age does society knowingly turn a blind eye at the atrocities that take place on this earth, for the purpose of sustaining the shape of consumer culture that we are fixed into? I focused my research towards many topics, including mistreatment of animals used as entertainment (zoos, circuses, aquariums, theme parks, roadside attractions), exploitation of animals used within the fur/skin industry, mistreatment of animals used as medical experiments, and exploitation of animals used within the meat/poultry farming industry. Each of these are as shocking as each other, yet I felt that the farming industry was something that I needed to address, as I feel that there are many people that simply do not know enough about their food, and I know for a fact that many would be encouraged to re-think the way that they live their lives, had they researched the topic as intensely as I had. Basically, in uncovering all of this information that I had done in this time I realised that people needed to see this and learn more. There are free range farms all over the world, where farm animals have relatively pleasant lives, they aren't mistreated, and they are able to roam free in fresh air and live out their instinctual behaviours. Then, there are intensive factory farms, where animals suffer an inherently different fate. This is what I wanted to portray through my artwork. To do this I decided to create a twelve page zine (miniature magazine) following the life of a factory farmed pig in North Carolina. Heres the zine, and on my website is some separate artwork from this project also:
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These are a few of the films/documentaries that have aided my research. These are of course from a distinctively animal rights fundamentalist point of view, therefore are pretty shocking. Of course this is a topic that has many opinions, and these are videos made with only one in mind, something to consider while watching. Take a look.
Lucent - Documentary about intensive Hog farming:
Undercover at Smithfields foods:
Undercover at Smithfields foods:
Death on a factory farm - HBO:
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