Art piece by Sarah Ronald
Art has reflected the Values of human cultures all throughout the history of our species. So how does art reflect the perceptions toward wild carnivores in our present culture?
So here are the words of a present day artist, Sarah Ronald, expressing what she wishes to reflect.
“I am a mixed media animal artist, and my practice focuses on human-animal relationships with an emphasis on how we impact wildlife in urban and suburban settings.
I’ve always felt an affinity with wildlife, particularly Coyotes. Humans’ attitude towards the Coyote is often fear-based and unkind, so Coyotes are often treated as unimportant and disposable when we actually should revere them. Like all predator species they are simply surviving by whatever instinctual means necessary, and the fact that they can survive around the tumultuousness of humans is actually a testament to how incredible they are.
As an artist I am interested in human behavior towards wildlife. The way in which the majority of the population regards the coyote is a litmus test of how humans regard all things that they feel to be other – whether that other be a real Coyote, or a concept or idea that we don’t understand or agree with.
How humans regard something deemed as ‘other’, says a great deal about who we are as individuals and collectively as a society.”
