Extinction Saints series

It's been a few months since I've posted here, and I really have no excuse except for laziness. I've started a new series of small paintings of animals who are going extinct because of human greed. They will be small paintings (9 x 12 or 10 x 10) which suits me these days as I can complete paintings more quickly, and they are easier to ship than big pieces. The first two in the series are below:

"Killing the People of the Forest" - (c) 2014 Michelle Waters

The situation with palm oil cultivation in Sumatra, Borneo and Malaysia is more and more dire for the animals of the area who are losing habitat quickly. Orangutans, Sumatran tigers, rhinoceros and pygmy elephants are just a few species whose populations are crashing due to palm oil mania. Palm oil is ubiquitous and in everything from snack foods to laundry detergent and nutritional supplements. To understand more about the palm oil crisis, please visit saynotopalmoil.com.

"One Every 15 Minutes" (c) 2014 Michelle Waters

African elephants will be extinct in the wild within 10 years if the global ivory trade is not shut down. The U.S. is the second largest market for ivory sales, after China. Ivory is for sale in Chinatown and Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. I've seen it myself. Today, 100 elephants will be killed by semi-automatic weapons, spears, traps and poisoning. Their tusks will be hacked off and sent to Chinese carving factories. A burgeoning Chinese upper class has fueled the slaughter in recent years. Many of the poachers have ties to terrorist organizations, and many, many wildlife rangers have also been killed defending elephants and rhinos. To find out what grassroots groups on the ground in Africa are doing to address the crisis, please visit Elephant Aware Masai Mara  and the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, both in Kenya.

Satao, Kenya's biggest elephant, was killed by poachers in the last few days. Read more...