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Bird Peace illustrations

By Ari | Sep 8, 08 08:24 AM

So, I did some drawings the week before we moved to Ithaca, in the mornings. Each morning I did one and posted it on Flickr. I got a surprising amount of positive feedback - yay Flickr! I cannot recommend Flickr highly enough for any budding artists / visual experimenters / photographers out there. If positive reinforcement is something that drives you, Flickr's community has got it in spades. Thank you, Flickr friends.

Anyway, here are the four pieces. Each one is about peace, and each one is kinda birdsploitation. I really dig birds. There's an immediate association with peace, because of our friend the Peace Dove. But birds are good inspiration in other ways. They, like us, sing songs and decorate nests. They, like us, seek heights but come back down to the creature comforts of food and sleep and family. I think we have a lot to learn from them.

Teach Peace. The tiniest bird can teach us peace. She lives in her ecological niche, in sustainable equilibrium with the other species around her. She never takes more than she needs to survive, allowing her neighbors to thrive and support her in turn. In turn, we can learn to act with such peace that no animal needs to fear us any longer. We need to improve how we fit into our own ecological niche, to begin to help our neighbors to thrive.

The means are the ends. This one is taken from a quote by Gandhi, who said, "the means are the ends in progress." Basically, no, violence is never justified, because if you want peace, you need to use peaceful means to get it. That's where peace comes from. That's what peace is.

Might does not make right: This one is just a reminder from one of our small, sweet cousins. Did you know chickens score higher on cognitive tests than do dogs or cats? Or if you prefer scripture over science, doesn't god hear every sparrow fall? The tiniest, downiest chick deserves nothing less than compassion, and the right to be let alone with his loving family. (Sadly, commercial egg production involves unspeakable horrors done to chicks. Please read about it if you aren't yet informed - and go vegan!)

Everything will be OK (no really). This one is another reminder. If we look at the long arc of history we can see how much better things have become over time. I believe another world is not only possible, but is being built right now. Join in! Read Nowtopia or The Great Turning if you need evidence or more encouragement than these birds can give you. Everything will be OK!

For more of my work on Flickr, please check out my i made this photoset. Comments (here and on Flickr, negative and positive) are always welcome.

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