Original artwork description:

I grew up next to a dairy farm. As a child I would spend hours feeding and petting the cows after school. Later I would learn that these sweet creatures endure a short but cruel life of pain and sorrow on a typical dairy farm: being raped for life, having their babies ripped from them at birth (to be made into "veal") and finally being sent to the slaughter house to be hung upside down and bled out. The cruelty inflicted on them is one of the reasons I became vegan. For Hindus and Buddhists, symbolism of the cow deals with patience and holiness. For this, cows are considered India's most sacred animal. I combined the image of a dairy cow with the White Tara, which is sometimes referred to as the Mother of all Buddhas. She represents the motherly aspect of compassion and signifies purity, wisdom and truth. Cow Tara depicts a cow as a holy, sentient being because I want the viewer to feel as I do: that cows are sacred beings and not raw materials for products of consumption.

Materials used:

paper, acrylic ink, plot prints

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