Animalau Blog

He is a gaur and he is humongous!

Want to know how powerful he is? He’s the biggest wild cattle! Nothing too small escapes him…

A mosquito deterrent has been found in the gaur. It’s witchcraft! It makes the mosquito want to groom itself obsessively.

And since blood suckers are females, it makes a lot of sense! And it’s good for a lady to take some time off for herself.

-Christie

I was thinking about coral chandeliers

done with Lepen Pen

(at the seafood restaurant!)

-Christie

…there is a Royal Bengal Tiger! Unlike lions, tigers prefer to live alone instead of in prides (since males don’t raise their cubs). So to communicate with other tigers, a tiger pees on various forest things to make its presence known.

How surreal this would be for people! Wandering in solitude, but every now and then finding evidence of another’s existence. Instead of finding pee maybe tips of what the other people are like. Could be a hair roller, a tea bag, a wallet…

mythical taxidermy sketch

I think mine would be cinnamon gum.

-Christie

Black lines on the cheeks of football players, cheetahs and the white-crested laughingthrush. Ra ra Steelers!

sketch from the zoo

Laughingthrush sound like: RA. REE! RA RA RA REE RA RA REE REE REE

Can listen for real at: laughingthrush sound
The bird gets really hysterical near the end of the clip!

-Christie

Coffee doodle doo!

coffee and jittery lines

Have a good snow storm.

-Christie

dry.

Great blue heron airing out wings

Drawn while waiting for my hair to dry after a swim with Galapagos creatures. Seemed appropriate!

-Christie

When we personify and identify with animals, we recognize and accept more about our own behaviour and condition. In my work, I strive to understand humans by finding parallels in our fellow animals.

nib ink and stamped ink

Here is a drawing/print that functions as a metaphor for the declining genetic stability of the cheetah species. The body of a cheetah is famously refined in its design. This cat’s seventy-pound body is tailored to reach its super mammalian speed of 120 km/h. However, although the cheetah is crowned the fastest land animal, the architecture of its kingdom is just as rapidly crumbling. Barely able to survive the ice age, the remaining fifteen hundred of this species now face looming extinction from its massively diminished population.  Extreme inbreeding has resulted in an alarming lack of genetic diversity, making them highly susceptible to extinction if there were to be an epidemic. Furthermore, these aerodynamic, light cats are usually unable to defend themselves, their cubs, and kills from their heavier relatives.

detail of the drawing

The cheetah has evolved to be an exceptional species, and yet, so specialised that its uniqueness is leading it to its elimination. The tragedy of one’s own nature and power being one’s biggest downfall is a sentiment that is not only felt by cheetahs. Humans, too, can empathise with the vicious cycle of the cheetah – of one’s greatest strength being one’s ultimate weakness. We build fantastic super technology, such as the Concorde, a turbojet-powered supersonic aircraft. When it lost its titanium part during lift off and caused a fire ignition, the Concorde had past its V₁ speed and continued to attempt lift-off. The fire caused the plane to disintegrate in the air and reached extreme temperatures until it lost control and crashed. On a personal level, one can be so attractive one becomes only appreciated as such, or love another so intensely that one falls dependent and loses his or her individuality.

I express this sentiment by beginning with an original ink drawing of a cheetah. The unique drawing of the cheetah is replicated with a scanned image that is then laser etched into rubber. Then, the cheetah’s image was inked once and printed around the original drawing multiple times. Eventually, the copied image of that cheetah deteriorated because of the material nature of the printing technique. The final appearance initially resembles a mass of cheetahs. Upon closer investigation, however, the viewer will realise that there is just one cheetah and he is surrounded by himself, gradually degrading.

detail of first stamped image from the laser etched rubber

-Christie