Newspaper, Tea, Coffee, Charcoal, Chalk, and Gold/Silver Acrylic paint.
Undergraduate
The Cape buffalo, leopard, lion, rhino, and African elephant are known as the ‘Big Five’ not because of their speed, size, beauty, or weight, but rather because of the danger and difficulty of hunting for them on foot. Game hunters prize the heads of the animals, not to feed their families like native hunters, but to show their prowess as men. This is why I choose to draw head portraits of these beautiful and challenged animals. African tour companies use them as a tourist attraction, but for me they are a part of my upbringing. Each of these portraits tell their own stories but share a commonality of being poached for their tusks, skin, or the prized trophy heads. Now they are all threatened animals due to poaching and environmental pressures of humans encroaching into their habitats, stripping away their freedom to live. The charcoal draws attention to the negative effects of deforestation, burning of the wood, and release of harmful CO2 into the atmosphere with global effects. Tea and coffee as toners highlight their importance to the economy of Kenya, the country of my ancestors, who valued the animals of the wild, and the earth that they shared.
