Animals in Allegory

Each piece uses animals in an allegorical/metaphorical representation of a particular social issue.

“Chesapeake”
(18.5x18.5in Pen, Watercolor, Colored Pencil on heavyweight Paper)

With an open heart and open mind, the cat ventures out of the comfort of his own community
to find friendship with the fish inside the segregated parameters of their fish bowl.
Understandably many swim away in distrust.
The memories from years of subjugation and abuse from others just like him.
Momentarily unraveled from his ball of yarn,
the cat will not soon forget his day inside the fish bowl.

*

“Life, after death”
(11x13in Pen, Watercolor, Colored Pencil on heavyweight Paper)

For years the rat wandered, oblivious to love’s arrows being shot towards him…
yet missing and falling all around him.
Considering himself dead to the eyes of anyone seeking beauty,
he fell, stunned, when the arrow struck him…
Finding not only the True Love that had so long eluded him,…but Life. after death.
*

“gaslight.”
(11x15in Pen and Acrylic on heavyweight Paper)

The weary, emaciated rat shows the effects of years of domestic abuse, mentally and physically exhausted.
Their spirit slowly escaping them through their eyes.
But no one sees this for what it is.
The snake has deceived them all, showing deceitful brilliance with its faux heart and halo on display.
Attack after attack, strike after strike,…hidden beyond willfully blinded eyes.
The death of the rat will be frowned upon.
The loss of the snake mourned.
*

“Do whales dream of dying?”
(11x23in Pen, Gouache on heavyweight Paper)

As humans, as the top mammals on the earth, we are often prone to contemplate the eventual end of our lives.
In a time in which we have robbed, polluted, and laid waste to so much of our environment, so much of our planet,…
that final moment not only grows closer to each of us with every passing day,
but threatens to shrink exponentially for the earth Herself.
Do the top mammals of the sea, feel this moment coming?
Do whales ever dream of dying?

“Royal.”
(15x23in Pen, Watercolor, Colored Pencil on heavyweight Paper)

The Peacock stood in brilliant color,
in exalted magnificence over the bones of the fowl that had stood before him.
Adorned in ribbon the color of the blood of his fallen opponents,
he confidently watched the ashes of those that opposed him drift into the breeze of history.
Their names unremembered,…but His Royalty never to be forgotten.

Chip Hudson (b. 1976) is an illustrative fine artist on a US Military base in rural Alabama, who now resides in Norfolk, Virginia. Inspired at an early age by the album covers of heavy metal records, and the aesthetics of 90’s skateboard culture, his art would become a coping mechanism in a battle with mental health following the deaths of his family, a broken back, divorce, and more between 2002 and 2012. Using pen and ink with water-based paints on heavyweight papers, he combines ambiguous human figures, nature, and animals into surreal themes that viewers often describe as personally nostalgic.

Website
www.chiphudsonart.com
SocialMedia:
@chiphudsonart(Facebook, Instagram, Twitter)