So.... here we go! I will explain how this work of art came about, what I now see and what it means to me. BUT - Before you read any further, take a good look at this creation and leave a comment to let me know what YOU see... I don't want my interpretation to pollute your experience of seeing. I have already found that this work can be perceived in many different ways. This piece may be considered a bit controversial and may not be liked by many people. I am ok with this. Art is not always meant to be pretty or to make you feel comfortable. In a way, this piece came out of nowhere. I had no plan or intention when I started. All I knew is that I felt the need to use a deep olive green and I wanted to add elements of collage. I had no idea where it would go, I wanted to let the process lead me and see what evolved. I chose my collage elements based on colours that would compliment the background and placed them without too much thought, intuitively balancing them. Once the first stage was finished, it was pleasing enough to my eye that I almost wanted to leave it. This happens to me often. I want to stay in the 'safe zone'. But I have learned, that you can't just settle! You must be brave, push forward and explore. So I decided to grab my oil pastels and do some mark making, balancing the colour a bit more. I have also learned that giving pause is important. When I am in 'flow' mode I can sometimes hardly wait for the paint to dry so I can keep moving forward! But stepping back and giving yourself time to see things more objectively is really worthwhile. So I left it alone overnight. The next morning I eagerly rushed down to the easel to give it a good long look. I turned it in all directions. And then, there it was.... the elephant. If you know me, you know that after 13+ years of living with, working for, drawing, painting, observing and writing about elephants, I very well might see elephants in EVERYTHING I look at. But lately I haven't been doing much elephant or activist related artwork. Now that I am no longer surrounded by elephants and constantly exposed to all aspects of their life in captivity - the good, the bad and the UGLY.... I am not filled with as much stress, anger and disillusionment as I was then. Ironically, those emotions are potent creative fuel which help an artist to give birth to powerful, sometimes disturbing or poignantly beautiful imagery that carries a strong message, even without words. Now that I am happier and have other things to focus on, the activist art ideas still in my head have a harder time coming out. I vacillate between wanting my art to have a strong message and just making art for the sake of making art. Sometimes I wonder, is my art less valid if I am just enjoying myself? If it has no meaning? Getting back to the 'elephant in the room'.... So there it was. I struggled. Do I acknowledge it or not? How will it dictate where this piece will go? I was leaning towards abstract, so was bringing the elephant to life going to make the art too literal? Was it too random? How would it fit into the overall composition? WHAT WILL IT MEEEAAAANNNN? But it was undeniable. The more I looked I could see the ear, the neck and part of the front leg. I decided to go for it. The elephant would stay. I made the commitment by using a deep adobe red to emphasize the shape a bit. At this point it was time to step back again because I had no idea what was next and how this would end up making sense. The blue shape on the bottom looked like some kind of animal, maybe a hyrax or a baby elephant reaching up, but I wasn't feeling it. Once again I left it over night. The next morning as I contemplated my next move with eyes refreshed, it all started to fall together. When this happens it almost feels like magic - to see an image appear where before was just a shape and then to watch as the image becomes more clear, with barely a line or a brushstroke. Before you know it - you can't un-see it! Fate and the subconscious work in mysterious ways. Though I've been feeling pretty upbeat lately, I recently experienced renewed feelings of frustration and disappointment in regards to how so many people assume that captive elephants enjoy excessive touching and up close interaction. These feelings can be triggered easily when scrolling through the newsfeed on fb. Little did I know that I would end up working out these feelings with this creation. The blue animal became a torso, arm outstretched. The strange white shape became a human head. I added an eye, then a mouth and a hand. There was now a powerful message. But what I found incredible was that it came to be so organically. The words came a day later. I felt they were necessary to add more emphasis, but had to come up with the right way to say what I needed to say. Finally the perfect phrase came to mind and pulled the piece completely together. So, without any advance planning I ended up creating an authentic and (admittedly rather disturbing) piece of activist art. My first in a long time. I was surprised and pleased. The feeling of satisfaction overshadowed the negativity I had felt from seeing the pictures that upset me. Art IS therapy. Maybe not for everyone, but definitely for me. I am guessing most of you understand the meaning, but for those who may be new to me, my beliefs and my art - here is a (kind of) brief explanation: Though you may mean well, when you touch and engage with captive elephants - whether working or 'rescued', you are doing so against their will. They are not there because they want to be. Most elephants have suffered greatly at the hands of humans, to make them too afraid to question their keeper's authority. They have accepted that it hurts less to tolerate than to react. We would never dream of trying to touch or take a selfie with a wild elephant. It could end in grave injury or death for us. There is no such thing as a domesticated elephant. They are the same animal as their wild cousins, except they are not allowed autonomy. By engaging in touching, feeding or bathing elephants in captivity, you are taking advantage of their oppression and the breaking of their spirit. There is a good chance that each time a person touches them, they are reminded of that moment when they were stripped of their dignity and their lives were changed forever. What feels good to YOU... may NOT feel good to THEM.
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I have been procrastinating long enough, so here I am, FINALLY writing my very first blog post for my new website! I had been stalling because i really didn't know where to start, but thanks to a conversation with my MOM, I got the inspiration that I needed to get going.
As we talked this morning she reminded me of something that I had recently realised but failed to see the importance of. My mom is great for this kind of thing and I am always grateful for her point of view. We were speaking of a piece of art I had reposted on social media a few weeks back. I could not recall the piece she was talking about, so we both went to search for it. Once we were both looking at it, I was amazed to find out that my mom had completely missed the central image. To me it was plain as day. It never occurred to me that someone might NOT see it. She suggested that I post it yet again and ask people what they see, which I thought was a really good idea. But - this whole conversation gave me an even better idea FOR THIS BLOG, which had been hanging over my head.... I have decided that I will dedicate a blog post to some... maybe all? of my works of art. People do like the story behind the image, yes? I know that I do. Though it can be good to leave art open to interpretation by the observer, to understand the artist's meaning can be powerful in a completely different way. What do you see in the photo above? I would love to know! Now that I have hopefully captured your attention, I think this first blog post is long enough. Stay tuned for the next post where we will dive into the explanation of one of my latest works! Until then.... look for faces in the trees and elephants in the clouds. |
AuthorMy name is Jodi. I am an Artist, Vegan, Activist, Nature Worshipper, Animal Lover, Idea Person, Strategist, Writer, Intuitive, Empath and Mom. Life can be exciting and complicated. I am easily distracted by horizons filled with fantastic mountains and cloud formations. Archives
March 2018
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#elephants #artists #vegan #mixed media #art therapy #animal activism
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