11/26/2019 ART: SHINJINI SURSEVEN IMAGES FROM THE SERIES 'ENDANGERED.' VISION: Butternutbutternut creates art inspired by conscious living, a bright and quirky take on a utopia where animals and humans coexist in harmony. For this series, Endangered, I wanted to hero endangered species to bring awareness to the alarming reduction in population. When we think of tigers, rhinos, orangutans, the general understanding is that they exist, freely, in the wild, but the truth is that we are close to extinction, and they only exist in conservation areas. This series in meant to humanize these animals, hence they are shown on human bodies, and start the dialogue on what we can do to help them, whether through mindful tourism, conscious buying of goods and services or donations. Over continued years of illegal trade, poaching, deforestation, and climate change, we are responsible for this tragedy, and now we need mass awareness to help save these species. Butternutbutternut was started in 2018 by Shinjini Sur, a self-taught artist. Shin's vision is to create art inspired by conscious living - bright, fun, and quirky pieces critiquing social norms. Her iconic work shows animals on human bodies to personify and humanize them, ultimately bringing to life a utopian world where humans and animals coexist in harmony. She is currently experimenting with new materials and home decor - check out butternutbutternut.com for more of her work. *20% of all proceeds from shopping this collection goes to the World Wildlife Fund in support of endangered, critically endangered, and vulnerable animals.*
11/21/2019 ART + POETRY: FRANCINE CUNNINGHAMTo Aliens (all) we fucked up the planet that is not by choice well not by my choice and not by a lot of people I know it was sort of an accumulative fucking up so you probably shouldn’t come back here or visit for the first time right now you should probably just wait until this part of humanity is gone because while we have fucked it up currently i don’t have much hope that we’ll be around that much longer to continue fucking it up and after that you can come visit again the things that come after us will probably be hotter anyways To plant life (all), you show what you heal in your very makeup the cellular structure of what you are giving us a map to all that means to be alive seen in valerian root shaped like a nervous system used to calm our nerves and send us to sleep seen in strawberries cut in half the picture of a human heart used to heal our hearts seen in St. John’s wort bright yellow flowers calling forth joy used to heal depression you show us and sadly, only some of us see Francine Cunningham is an award-winning Indigenous writer, artist and educator originally from Calgary, AB but who currently resides in Vancouver, BC. She is a graduate of the UBC Creative Writing MFA program, and a recent winner of The Indigenous Voices Award in the 2019 Unpublished Prose Category and of The Hnatyshyn Foundation’s REVEAL Indigenous Art Award. Her fiction has appeared in Grain Magazine as the 2018 Short Prose Award winner, on The Malahat Review’s Far Horizon’s Prose shortlist, Joyland Magazine, The Puritan Magazine, and more. Her debut book of poetry is titled ON/Me (Caitlin Press). You can find out more about her at www.francinecunningham.ca.
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