My Art for the Year

I haven't written yet about what I have been painting this year... I commited this year to painting sharks. I struggled in the beginning of the year trying to decide what I wanted to spend my year in Italy painting. Probably my favorite piece I have ever worked on had to do with shark fin soup, but I wanted to do something that reflects that fact that I am in Italy and I started to obsess over many different ideas. When I started talking to the rest of the art students and my teacher, telling them that I was having a difficult time deciding what to paint, I said I wanted to paint some of my photographs from this year or sharks and animals in the ocean that deal with over-fishing. People were curious when I mentioned shark-fin soup and the fact that about 70 million sharks are killed each year, mainly for the production of this soup. Once I began talking, I realized how passionate I am about educating people about what goes on in our oceans, and especially with sharks.

There are over 400 species of sharks, and while only a small percentage have attacked humans, people tend to be scared of all of them. But just because we are scared of an animal doesn't mean we get to hunt them into extinction, which is what we are doing very rapidly. The process of shark-finning, starts with long-lineing. There is an extremly long line of baited hooks sent out into the water to attract sharks, or whatever animals wants to feel on that bait. When a shark is found on the line, he is pulled off, sometimes alive, and his fins are chopped off and he is thrown back into the ocean. The finless shark is unable to swim, but still very much alive. They suffer a slow death sinking to the sea floor, ironically suffocating without being able to circulate water through thier gills.

It is so gruesome and cruel and it is finally being stopped in many places. Only time will tell if we are taking action too late in this situation; sharks are slow reproducers. I aim to show people what is being done and what ignorance and selfishness is doing to our oceans.

I recently watched this youtube video, tough to watch but important. There is also a documentary called Sharkwater I would really recommend watching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r65FgUYdBOc