May

Outside of my Sikh artwork, this drawing is the most important piece that I have drawn. It was my second piece in the series on animal cruelty and is titled 'End of the Road'. Being a vegetarian my entire life, I have found people’s lack of empathy for animals disturbing. People ignore the suffering and trauma animals go through, except when they have an emotional connection to the animal, like pets, then they are horrified. One aspect of the meat industry that is often overlooked is the transport of animals, which I try to convey. The bars across the drawing signify the bars you see on transport trucks that are designed to hold animals in. This drawing is also one of my most surreal pieces, as I portrayed emotions, like fear and suffering. People ignore the fact that animals feel fear, sadness and distress but do not show it in a way that people can understand. Unfortunately, most people have got to the point that animals are just 'food' and so they have no emotional connection to them or their suffering.

I decided to combine the person and the cows together in one drawing. My goal was to create empathy for the cow by having the human represent the cow’s emotions, such as fear, confusion and distress. This would then bridge the gap that people have with the cow’s suffering, but would instead convey the cow’s inner emotions. Also, as cows and other animals cannot verbalize their thoughts, I put the bar from the transport truck across the person’s mouth to symbolize that he does not have a voice. If there is one thing I want people to do while looking at my artwork, it is to 'think' about what they are doing when buying or eating meat. The amount of suffering that millions of animals go through on a daily basis for human consumption, in my opinion is one of the worst acts of evil. This particular drawing has had the greatest impact on me. The journey to become a Vegan is very difficult, so I am not fully there yet, but my goal is to become completely vegan in the near future. Doing artwork on animal cruelty is difficult as it can make you feel hopeless and very angry, however, I know that through my art I may be able to change people’s attitudes to eating meat.