African Safari
Homage to a continent I have never set foot upon. And I suspect I never will.
These two artworks were created from photographs of urban decay with the help of Photoshop.
A magnificent place of so many different places. Rich human history melted together with glorious wildlife of a size and plentitude that touches all our pasts. Such natural splendour has a very strong pull but...
I also have a feeling that I don't want to disturb it. I do not need to see it and if my seeing reduces its chances to flourish then I can go without. The images of a cheetah on a kill surrounded by dozens of trucks carrying tourists come to mind and that is not something I want to be part of. I'm sure nobody really does, and perhaps nobody realises it will be quite like that. Maybe it isn't always. But sometimes it clearly is and according to research it works against the cheetah despite the animal's apparent ability to ignore what's going on around it.
But the story is complicated, of course. Without tourism what becomes of it all? A myriad of pressures chewing away. I can only react in the way that feels right for me, which guides me let it be and optimistically hope that good decisions will be made to care for all our wildness. This basically means that I satisfy my urges for wildlife sightings with our local offerings. The fascinating detail of what I find goes a long way to compensating for being less spectacular than the plains of Africa. And I still dream and there is still always a pull... When I was very young instead of a story I always asked my mother to read me a two-page spread from a book called Animal Life in Africa with its illuminating facts and wonderful illustrations. Hooked from a very young age.
Can you spot the elephant in the artwork above?
Weathered Old Africa
This second one is an older picture along the same lines and includes different sides of the human influence. With both of these images the weathered textures add so much in this story of continental age. These textures come from photographs of urban decay that were taken nowhere near Africa but the patterns of weathering are universal.
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