I've grown as an artist in the past two years, and I thought I should start a new sketchbook to honour that. if any of you read my book, the drawings here may be the reason why updates haven't arrived XD
Things are happening and they're not good things. I'm gonna hold off on talking about the elephant in the room for a few moments.
In one of my classes we just finished a social justice project. As you know there are a lot of topics that should be discussed today and I chose one that is dear to me. Here is my poster and its artist statement:
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Beware: The Monsters of the Sea
My poster is created to hopefully open people's eyes and look beyond what media (specifically movies) has to offer in terms of sharks so that they can support causes like #FinFree.
I am not trying to bash classics like Jaws for just being a movie and telling a story... what I cannot forgive, however, is a movie like The Shallows, which depicts some very strange shark behaviour for a movie released in 2016 (a hungry shark abandons a 30-ton whale carcass in favour of much less nutritionally valuable human prey) (Sony, 2016). I am not a marine biologist, but even I can tell something here is fishy.
While The Shallows can be enjoyed as a thriller flick, its impact on society should not be looked over. Fifty years ago, people were terrified of sharks, and rightly so – they are apex predators in a world we are not a part of, and being caught in the water with a hungry predator is something no one should have to endure. However, times have changed, and so must our attitudes. If movies continue to use sharks as villains, causes like #FinFree might not get the support they need to save these amazing animals.
For the artwork, I deliberately based it off of the Jaws painting because it is iconic and highly recognizable (Kastle, 1974). If people take one glance they can identify the main themes, then hopefully looking closer they will be prompted to reflect with the imagery and wording used.
This brings me to the other half of my poster's main message: stopping the production of shark fin soup.
Shark fin soup is a delicacy in many cultures, but that does not mean that it is okay (Shahbano, 2019). Because of the demand for shark fins and other shark products, 90% of shark populations worldwide have been decimated (finfree, n.d.). This is alarming news for a keystone species, an animal that is highly important in its ecosystem's food chain (UNTV News and Rescue, 2020). The importance of sharks begins with simply hunting and eating their preferred prey (injured, sick, or weak fish) but it is so much more than that. Because they prey on these fish, they keep populations in check and help strengthen the gene pool of other species by culling weaker individuals. Sharks have such a wide range too, so their absence would be felt all over the world.
If 70 million sharks are killed each year and the people who can help don't want to because of media-sensationalized fear, then causes like #FinFree are lost (NBCUniversal News Group, 2012). I am embarrassed to think that the greed of some humans can be responsible for the extinction of an ancient lineage like sharks.
If you want to learn more about the importance of sharks, how they are being exploited and how you can help them, please visit www.finfree.org
#FinFree.
Works Cited and Consulted
ComicBook. (n.d.). Jaws: Original orca boat being recreated to promote shark conservation. Movies. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://comicbook.com/movies/news/jaws-orca-boat-original-recreation-shark-conservation/.
finfree. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://www.finfree.org/.
Kastle, R. (1974). Jaws [A large shark prepares to attack an unsuspecting swimmer] Unkown. Bantam.
memezzer. (2020). Great white shark lurking below. r/natureismetal. Reddit. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://www.reddit.com/r/natureismetal/comments/i22kmi/great_white_shark_lurking_below/.
NBCUniversal News Group. (2012, October 20). Sharks killed for fins, yet little done to protect them. NBCNews.com. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna49476110
Shahbano. (2019, October 23). Shark-fin soup: A delicacy that's destroying shark populations. Animalogic. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://animalogic.ca/animalogic/shark-fin-soup-a-delicacy-thats-destroying-shark-populations.
Sony. (2016). The Shallows. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4052882/.
Tucker, R. (2015, July 27). How the famous poster from 'jaws' was created - and lost. New York Post. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://nypost.com/2015/07/26/how-the-famous-poster-from-jaws-was-created-and-lost/.
UNTV News and Rescue. (2020). The Importance of Sharks | THE DIVE. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aVW0god0p8.
Now, let's talk about Ukraine.
This feels like a dream. But it's not, this is very very real.
The world is looking really scary right now and a lot of thoughts are running through my head. A lot of bad, some hopeful, but those hopeful thoughts look pretty far away. I desperately want another country to step up to Putin but with the possible threat of another world war, I am also scared of what he is capable of.
My heart goes out to Ukraine and everyone affected. I'm not the first person to say this and I will not be the last. I pray for everyone to get out safe and I cry thinking about the brave men who cannot leave in order to defend their homeland. I am appalled at the underhanded tactics being used to justify this invasion.
I am also disgusted by the fact that the Russians who protest Putin's actions are being arrested by the police whose job it is to protect them. Many people from all over condemn him and I wish he would wake up and see some sense, however futile those wishes are.
I am just terribly sad and scared and in pain, like a lot of people. My worry cannot ever amount to the fear the Ukrainian citizens must feel. I wish I could do more, but as a student living in Canada of Slavic nationality, I feel so removed and yet so close to the conflict.
During these difficult times it is very easy to be focused on negativity. I know I would go insane if I could not think of something else, and yesterday this song has been playing on loop in my head. I leave you with this, in the hopes that Ukraine stays standing strong. It's not much, but it's all I got. I am so so sorry.
I will not be posting next week. I pray everything can be resolved. Stay strong, Ukraine <3
