Flotsam & Jetsam, Refugee, Sixth Extinction Series Painting

The painting is part of the Sixth Extinction Series. Short listed for 10th Passion for Freedom London Arts Festival Prize 2018 This particular piece was inspired by the pictures of two Syrian boys, the Kurdi brothers, sadly washed up on a beach in the Mediterranean after their boat sunk offshore. They made the news headlines for a while until the backlash against ‘immigrants’ took hold across Europe. No-one puts their child in a life jacket, on an old decrepit boat without the hope of a better future. A passion for freedom. Fleeing from war, famine or purging, has long been a catalyst for refugees. In future, this will be exacerbated by climate change and other human factors driving the Sixth Extinction. Anyone thinking the refugee crisis will go away isn’t paying attention. Unless we change course as a species, mass migration will grow from a trickle to a tidal wave. The painting shows a life jacket washed up on a beach along with other bits of flotsam and jetsam. The only activity is that of two inquisitive gulls. Other than the child’s shoe, there are no clues as to why the jacket is there. Was it thrown away at the moment of freedom, as a refugee celebrates finally coming ashore in a safe place? Is it from someone who was unfortunate to have drowned trying to escape tyranny or war, as did the Kurdi brothers? The other stuff washed up references other problems we have with the oceans. Plastic bottles, part of a fishing net and rope from trawlers, dredging the oceans of life, driving the Sixth Extinction. The war in Syria was in part driven by climate change spiralling into a civil war, events which led eventually, tragically, to those brothers drowning in the Med. Sadly, they had no life jackets. The symbol top left is that of the Sixth Extinction.

Painting:Oil on Wood

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:58 W x 49 H x 1 D in

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