LORI DUNN SCRATCHBOARD ART
promoting conservation through artistic efforts
Walk Unafraid
18 x 24
SOLD
This marks my final piece for 2019. I had wanted to do another elephant in scratchboard but ideas were escaping me. The usual head shots were not turning my gears, as it were. The elephant piece sat on the back burners of my mind. I try to have an accompanying message with every piece I do, and as the year unfolded with more depressing news of wildlife decimation, I kept thinking of one strong piece to end out the year with. Elephant idea returned, this time, not rendered with typical expectation, but with symbolism in mind.
“Walk Unafraid” features the largest terrestrial vertebrate on earth, the African elephant - a giant that can trod through its habitat with confidence, and little fear of the few potential threats to its daily regime. It also features a cattle egret, a member of the heron family. Delicately striding amid the legs of huge mammals such as elephants, rhinos and water buffalo, these fearless birds wait for insects to be kicked up by such beasts on the move.
This piece, however, is more than a rendering of the symbiosis between these two species. It is dedicated to those who struggle to preserve their existence. Conservationists around the globe are struggling to keep up the fight to protect what is left of the earth’s biodiversity despite the ongoing crises facing every single ecosystem on earth. It’s a battle that tears at the very heart and beats them down mentally and physically. Protecting wildlife has now become an all out war with political, cultural and financial impediments. Those on the front lines of conservation are the unseen soldiers of this war. They suffer compassion fatigue, they are ridiculed, and they face huge challenges with little assistance from the outside world. Their study animals are killed, and sometimes they, themselves are murdered. Many must now be armed. It is rare for their stories to ever make the news of the day.
“Walk Unafraid” is dedicated to those thrown into this war; those who must tread the path of resolve without fear of consequence, their purpose to protect and preserve our natural world for our own survival and that of future generations.
*On reserve for the Southeast Wildlife Expo FEB 13 - 16, 2020
