Animalau Blog

The second Angry Alpine Ibex!

tralala

He is a commissioned piece. This is the first time I’ve repeated a painting, but I thought it was quite fun to re-imagine his fancy clothes and to give him a different personality by tweaking his face.

-Christie

doodles in their original ink colours

-Christie

This one has been on my work desk for a year and I’ve only drawn it just now.

-Christie

These are tropical monkeys living up north. The poor things eat bark, tree needles, and dig for grass beneath the snow. They have stubby tails because long tails freeze. When it’s snowy outside they roll into balls of fur or… sit in hot springs : )

gouache

This one is not in a hot spring : (

-Christie

Another piece from the Angry Party Series! Alpine ibexes were thought to be magical animals that could be used for potions. They were almost pursued to extinction when the King of Sardinia proclaimed that only the royal family can hunt them. Imagine a court dance!

Toronto has a flea market called the “Heritage Antique Market” that takes place once a month. I was most interested in these little engravings done by Scottish artist, William Home Lazars (from Sir William Jardines’ publication in 1840).

plates by Lazar (and wood carving from Africa, and antique rose bowl turned paintbrush holder!... and shell from Michael's craft store.. ahahhaha)

Jaguar by Frederick De Wit ("Lumen Picturae" 1660) and Bear by Mme Rebel (1840). I got the beast Bear from the South of France last year

I love them because they’re totally bizarre with their neatly groomed fur and presumed species personality! These are drawings by artists without seeing the animals alive or in full and at a time when photography was just primitive. Nevertheless, they are infused with imagined character and liveliness and although published in scientific contexts and should serve as an ultimate model for the species, they exist more as a collection of personalities.

The medieval way of thinking about animals granted them souls with sentience, making them also responsible for their actions. This means animals could be brought into court and hire attorneys! At the time period of these engravings, however, the popular belief was that animals had no souls and were machines and thus unable to reason (“The Moral Lives of Animals” by Dale Peterson). I think it’s beautiful that despite these ideas, the animals are interpreted with such human-like expressions in these etchings.

"Felis Leo" and "Flat-Nosed Rhinoceros" by Lazar. Innocent and kind big-headed lion with grumpy puffy lips

My two favourites were the cheetah and mandrill and I wanted to give them to my friend, who is my animal everything buddy. When I put the two of them together, I was visually reminded of the National Geographic programme, “Eye of the Leopard”, and the viral excerpt of the leopard who kills a mother baboon but tries to care for a baby baboon, its natural enemy and prey in the wild.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdHjRZki9Qc

I thought their relationship was a good symbol for my friendship with her because it’s so intense and rare!

faces of the mandrill and cheetah by Lazar

From human expressions in engravings to amazing rare footage of a leopard that seems to have moral compassion, we still use our understanding of ourselves to understand animals. And I don’t think they’re machines!!

I made it so that she can hang this across her wall, like a travelling picture frame/card!

-Christie

Toronto based videography team, Stories Worth Sharing, made a hip stop motion video of animals! If you missed Animalau at the expo, or you want to reminisce (hahaha), it’s a good time!

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Featured artworks are: What is a Bird?, Breed: Bull Terrier, Angry Wildebeest Dance, Italian Hoopoe, Beastly and Elude

Thanks to Stories Worth Sharing and their lackeys!!

-Christie