Pandemica
Sarah Ronald
Artist Sarah Ronald, based in Port Coquitlam BC, Canada writes, “I am an animal artist, I focus on creating educational artwork about human behavior and our treatment of wildlife. With the Covid-19 pandemic, I began reading a lot about potential causes, and learnt about Zoonotic viruses – that this virus is thought to have come from bats, to pangolin, to humans via the wet markets. This has inspired a whole new body of work, which I have titled Pandemica. The work is (so far) focused on bats and pangolin, but after absorbing Merlin Tuttle’s talk about covid-19 and bats, the arc of this work has shifted and will soon include humans (we will find deadly viruses wherever we decide to look, including humans), and will eventually include other host animals that have been thought to pass viruses onto humans. My entire message with my art practice is to re-present wild animal information in an effort to educate and bring self-awareness to individuals, and the fact that we are all part of nature, not separate from it. I embrace the concept that when we fight with nature, we are fighting with ourselves (ref. GA Bradshaw’s book ‘Talking With Bears, Conversations with Charlie Russell’)”
