I’ve been vegan for almost eight years now. I was vegetarian for most of my life, and although I never ate cows or pigs, and I definitely considered myself an animal lover, I still didn’t understand the cruelty involved with dairy, eggs, seafood and poultry — something that I now see so clearly. I definitely had that heavy (and false) societal conditioning, believing that animal products were necessary for health.
My major turning point came when I became involved with an animal cruelty protest that was going on a block from my house. The protest involved hens, and as I started researching what was going on, I discovered the fact that male chicks are considered a waste product in the poultry and egg industry, and are killed in gruesome ways at only a day or two old. This horrible fact totally shocked me — I truly had no idea, and it opened up a Pandora’s box of facts about factory farming. Learning that one thing changed my life forever. Up until that moment, I had been painting mostly landscapes, but my subject matter started to shift towards animals, and now I paint almost entirely animals. I know it sounds cliche, but going vegan was one of the best things I’ve ever done. It feels wonderful to have my artwork fully aligned with the rest of my life