Results of the contest Arts for Animal Rights!

Hello, people! A total of 34 artworks were kindly submitted by 31 artists, since January; and 27 participants of the Group of Studies on Animal Rights, here in Sao Paulo, Brazil, have just decided the winners of the contest Arts for Animal Rights!

1°) Reification of Life, digital painting by Bilkaya, from Brazil (31 points)

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2°) Falling Cattle, digital painting by AnnickHuber, from United States (19 points)



3°) Chicken Sandwich, photograph by suski-demon-girl, from United States (13 points)



The greatest congratulations to these artists! They will receive their prizes and I´m going to interview them, if they allow, to publish in my journal in the next weeks their answers about their art, what they think and do for animal rights, among other things.

Why have they been chosen?

1) The absolute winner carved its way with a simple, but creative, beautiful and quality image. Reification of Life hit the nail on the head for its focus on the main issue of animal rights: so sadly, non-human animals are considered just like things and properties in our society. However, some voters think that the concept could be clearer in the illustration. I think that more details in the cyber-body, a scenery or more characters around would give more context and the idea clearer. But the work CE: Friends, not Property! explicitly dealt with this theme too, including different characters interactions, and got not so many votes.

2) Falling Cattle got a marvellous artistic technique and focus, without being rude, on one of the main uses of animals: meat production. The artwork shows how animals are treated as beings without inherent value. But voters said that preferred if the work focused on the slavery condition, more than the treatment itself; and that maybe some people don´t identify clearly where the animals are. Well, I think that the surreal enviroment is actually a bonus, and that the concept is very clear. I just imagine that it could improve even more if not repeated the poses of some animals.

3) Polemic and bold picture, Chicken Sandwich is direct on the theme of eating animals. Some people from my school of arts criticized the crude impact of this work, showing a cute little chicken between pieces of bread almost being eaten in a real photograph – but the author states that the animal wasn´t hurt and even ate all the bread later. Personally, I think it´s a good idea, because reveals the hypocrisy of people who dislike at all the idea of making this simulated scene, but in their routine actually do this with the little animal – just changed into pieces, without a face anymore.

Some matters of composition, as the head appearing on the background were criticized too, but it seems that it looked as a minor flaw for the voters. The idea in this artwork is similarly used in the photomanipulation Enjoy Your Meal, both almost tied in points for the contest. But maybe the mature content in the last one frightened some people.

All the other votes

The points were calculated in this way: each person who voted could choose up to three pieces, selecting one as the best, other for second best, and another for third best. For each vote, the best chosen got 3 points, the second 2 points, and the third 1 point.

Next, you can see the other voted artworks, in the order of the points (and by the order of submission, if some have equal votes value)!

4°) 11 points
Enjoy Your Meal, by xnih1lo, from Germany
Guernica Animal, by virginiacaldas, from Brazil

5°) 8 points
You pay for this, by SerenataPhotography, from Norway
Left Behind, by Kerri--Jo, from Canada

6°) 7 points
Why???, by FaAngMo, from Germany
A Hopeful Plea, by HollyWhisperwind, from United States

7°) 6 points
I´m Still Beautiful, by Ileina (Viki), from Austria
Share the Freedom, by GLaetitia (Letícia Jorge), from Brazil
CE: Friends - not property!, by MTToto (Toto), from Germany

8°) 5 points
The Wisdom of the Grizzly King, by rieke-b (Rieke Blendermann), from Germany

9°) 4 points
An Innocent Victim, by KovoWolf (Amber Mills), from United States
Behind the Bars, by Jac888, from India

10°) 3 points
For what?, by ImeriBridzhet, from Ukraine
Squashed Giraffe, by MuralsWithoutBorders (Gaea), from United States

11°) 2 points
Black Bird: ..only waiting..., by Coigach, from United Kingdom
Constant Worrying, by Upalicious, from Canada
Fox Cub No to Fox Hunting, by shirls-art (Shirley Davies), from United Kingdom
Playfullness or Prayfullness, by LuanaRPhotography, from Croatia

12°) 1 point
McDonald´s Cow Killer, by backerman, from United States

Sorry that 12 artworks didn´t receive any votes. But I need to explain that some voters stated that it was very difficult to choose among the 34 submitted, because actually they liked every one or many of them. On the other hand, others thought that very few works related to the central issue of animal rights: the condition of non-human animals as property. Anyway, I really appreciated a lot your efforts and works, and hope that you try again next time! Thank you very much!!!

Votes by the class of illustration

As a mention of honour, I´d like to present also the votes by my teacher of illustration in the school of arts and my colleagues on his class. According to the rules, these votes do not count for the contest, but I think it´s interesting to know about them.

Six people voted, and the absolute winner there, with 10 points, was the artwork Black Bird... Only Waiting, by Coigach, from United Kindgom:



It was followed by Enjoy Your Meal, by xnih1lo, with 4 points. The others votes got very spread through the other pieces.

The votes by my teacher Rodrigo Yokota "Whip" were for:
1) Reification of Life
2) Enjoy Your Meal
3) African Wild Dog Contest, by SuzanneMoseley (Suzanne Moseley), from United States

And my personal votes were for:
1) Falling Cattle
2) The Wisdom of the Grizzly King, by rieke-b (Rieke Blendermann), from Germany
3) An Innocent Victim, by KovoWolf (Amber Mills), from United States

I considered in these choices the high quality artistic technique; content and emotion conveyed; creativeness, subtle sensibility and cuteness (hehe). I put these and other 11 entries which follow my own taste in a personal favourites folder I´ve just created to show my preferences (roughly in the order of the best ones first, in my opinion)!

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Edit: I decided to give to all the participants a little gift as symbolic prize too: 20 points to people from 4th to 7th place, and others highlighted by me, my class of illustration or my teacher; 10 points to people from 8th to 11th place; and 5 points for each other.

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That´s all for now, folks!

But prepare yourselves: I plan to run another contest in the second half of this year for human rights; and another in the first half of 2013 again for animal rights!

All the best!
Mauricio Kanno