To me “Claudette” radiates beauty and intelligence. If you take the time to really look at her you’ll see that there’s a certain calming grace in her gaze. Forget the stereotype. I pass a farm on my way to work where a few souls sort of like Claudette live. I always look for them. Sometimes I even get to see the sweet little ones. I find them running all over the place… in this field or that. Once there was a mom and her piglets on the side of the road on their way to someplace special. I stopped the car, anxiously fumbling for my iPod, hoping to get a really great shot… and I kid you not…I must have caught her off guard because she actually did a triple-take. It was priceless. Her reaction couldn’t have been more human. Realizing she wasn’t alone and having a litter to care for she ran for a safer field knowing her little ones would scurry behind.

Being a vegetarian, I have to look at the world through rose-colored glasses sometimes. With a need to appreciate the moment I had to forget the obvious. Why this particular momma was there and the fate of her babes was a reality I had to try to put in the back of my mind temporarily. Very temporarily. I suppose this particular pig and her piglets were “lucky” to have lived on a farm in the country where they were free to roam instead of the appalling conditions of commercial pig farms. But in reality, their fate is determined by the farmer.

This is partly the reason for my particular chosen art form. Human, Animal… Animal, Human… we have more in common than most people want to believe.