Visual Arts & Exhibits
FORGET ME NOT
JANE O’HARA a virtual exhibition
I find the animal condition both disturbing and intriguing—our insensitivity to animals raised in captivity, versus the pampering of our pets.
The work in this exhibition, Forget Me Not, centers on how casually we forget our fellow animals. Animals exist behind the scenes both figuratively—convenient lies covering the reality—and in real life, where it’s even dangerous for human animals to risk exposing what goes on with animals in entertainment, scientific testing, meat and dairy agribusiness, hunting and in the fashion industry.
My painting, Forget Me Not—that this exhibition is named after—is painted as a floorcloth. We can walk all over these animals, or we can heed their plea to not forget them. We've been deluded into thinking there are degrees of sentience. I try to show the individual, who if we look and see, we’d quickly agree there are no degrees of sentience.
Click on images below to start slide show.
Women Artists for Animals
We Animals
Jo-Anne McArthur
Separate Not Equal
Jane O'Hara
Plastic Kills
Janell O'Rourke
Seeing Animals More Deeply Through The Arts
Live zoom event on Tuesday 11/17/20 at 7:30-9:00pm. This roundtable presentation with artists Jo-Anne McArthur, Jane O’Hara, and Janell O’Rourke, along with curator Carolyn Merino Mullin as moderator, will explore ways that the visual arts can be a tool for helping animals and for re-awakening the inherent bond we share with other beings, as well as for examining the duality of our relationship with animals and their treatment in society. Advance sign up required. Click here for information.
Artists for Animal Advocacy
“Final” by Luiso Garcia
The following artists listed below (in alphabetical order) are a few examples of some of the ways that the visual arts can be used to advance compassion for all beings. The sampling of artists that are highlighted here are artists whose work has been featured in Compassion Arts initiatives for our programs in previous years, or whose work is connected to advocates and presenters who were part of past festivals. We welcome information for learning about other artists for animal advocacy, both established and emerging. If you are a visual artist using your work for animals or would like to suggest another artist’s work, please reach out through our contact page.
ArtAnimalAffect
My Body Is Mine
Janell O'Rourke
Urban Wild Coyote Project
Kathryn Eddy
Roadside Memorial Project
LA Watson
A visual artist collective created by Janell O’Rourke, Kathryn Eddy, and LA Watson, ArtAnimalAffect is dedicated to using the visual arts for examining prevailing concepts about human/animal relationships and for offering alternative narratives rooted in empathy and hope for the future. Examples of their current projects (above from left to right) include My Body Is Mine by Janell O’Rourke, Urban Wild Coyote Project by Kathryn Eddy, and the Roadside Memorial Project by LA Watson.
Linda G. Fisher
Artist Linda G. Fisher has had a passion for other species, the natural world, and art all her life. As the inspiration for her paintings, animals convey a message of compassion for all species through her artistry. Linda is Ojibwe and Cherokee and a tribal member of the Ojibwe Nation. Her family is of the Catfish clan. Linda’s paintings, posters, prints, and illustrations can be found in local galleries and private homes worldwide. Linda is also an interspecies communicator and has co-authored several published books about non-human species and birds, and is recently writing her memoir about the amazing, sentient beings she has been fortunate enough to know. Click here to learn more about Fisher's work.
Suzy Gonzalez
Watching: Tomate
Frijoles
El Ciclo de Las Guacamayas
Suzy Gonzalez is an artist, curator, educator and community organizer using her artistry as an instrument for decolonizing art, art history, and consumption. Giving attention to the origins of both food and art, Gonzalez uses her artistry to reclaim the pre-colonial plant-based identity of her ancestors, and to serve as an instrument of intercultural conversation, working through intersections, as a platform to open doors to compassion and healing in a destructive world. Click here to learn more about Gonzalez’s work.
Isa Leshko
Allowed to Grow Old
Swoosie
Ash
Isa Leshko is an artist and writer whose work examines themes relating to animal rights, aging, and mortality. Her book Allowed to Grow Old: Portraits of Elderly Rescued Farm Animals is a poignant and compelling collection of Leshko’s fine art photography of rescued farm animals who have been “allowed to grow old” at sanctuaries.
She writes, “For nearly a decade, I have visited farm animal sanctuaries across America to create photographic portraits of geriatric animals. I began this series shortly after caring for my mom who had Alzheimer’s disease. The experience had a profound effect on me and forced me to confront my own mortality. I am terrified of growing old and I started photographing geriatric animals in order to take an unflinching look at this fear. As I met rescued farm animals and heard their stories, though, my motivation for creating this work changed. I became a passionate advocate for these animals and I wanted to use my images to speak on their behalf.” Click here to view more.
Jo-Anne McArthur
Zoos
Children crowd around taking pictures of a jaguar on cellphones and tapping on the glass, France 2016.
Award-winning photojournalist and animal advocate Jo-Anne McArthur is a voice for other animals through the lens of her powerful and thought-provoking images of animals in relationship with the human world, in all of the many different conditions in which they live, in places around the globe. Jo-Anne was named the 2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year and is the author of We Animals, Captive, and Hidden. The creator of We Animals Media and the founder of the Unbound Project, she was also the 2019 honoree of Compassion Arts Festival’s Artist for Ahimsa Award, and is a featured presenter at our virtual event Women Artists for Animals: “Seeing Animals More Deeply Through the Arts.” Click here to learn more about her work for animals.