I like it.
Interesting, so is this irony or are you serious?
I don't really feel like saying anything more about it untill i know that.

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"You don't think much of women on ships do you?"

I'm serious about treating all animals equally… and humans are animals too. So yes it is irony but I am serious at the same time. I made the statement to spark debate. If someone eats another person we get upset because "we shouldn't eat people". If someone eats a cat or dog we get upset because "we shouldn’t eat pets". Yet why don't we get upset if someone eats a cow? Is it because the cow's meat has been pre-packaged as less offensive hamburger patties or do we just think that cows deserve to be eaten? I don't think it is right to eat people or cows and that is why my personal choice is to be a vegetarian. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and have to make their own choices. This work: "cows are people too" is simple to get people thinking and talking about the issues relating to how we classify what is edible and what is not.

well people don't eat other people because that's canabalism, that is something that is instinct in all walks of life, you don't see lions eating lions, or ducks eating ducks. the whole not eating pets thing, that's just human sentimate, in the same way that you would be mad if you lost a dear piece of jewlery, or someone burned you house down. and some countries do eat dog, and cat raised for just that purpose. I have friends who slaughter, I cannot do it for the life of me. i can't even listen to the stories. So I'll say yes it is because its been vacume sealed in a plastic package. Personally what am i doing if i let the cow go to waste. If i don't eat it someone else will. If i throw it out it died in vain, and thats wasteful and disgusting. If i do eat it i'm an animal murder. I'm sorry to disagree, and i do respect your opinion as i hope you will respect mine but animals (humans included) were made to eat each other. That is the circle of life. Humans are natural predators, just like lions, and tigers, bears, sharks, eagles. The only problem we have is that we are too intelegent and selfish for our own good. Turning a simple predatory need into a move for capatalism, but that is just how things are these days. I have to deal with that. I'm not going to change it, because i can't change it.

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"You don't think much of women on ships do you?"

One person does make a difference.

You mentioned Capitalism – one of the premises that capitalism functions on is the concept of “supply and demand.” As long as there is a demand for something, there will be someone supplying it. So if you are not buying meat, the demand decreases. I know it is an idealistic way of looking at life but I truly believe that it starts with the individual.

We all have choices and we all have to live with the consequences of out choices. I don’t eat meat because I feel that I don’t want to and I don’t need to. The human body produces proteins if you eat a balanced diet of vegetables, seeds and nuts. But that is not for everyone and I respect that. I however feel that it is the right thing for me to do. You have to follow your heart.

Another problem with today’s meat is that it is full of growth hormones and other steroid that they feed to the animals. Genetic engineering is also major problem that we will soon be facing as an epidemic.

If you think about what an animal has to endure before it is slaughtered you would loose you appetite. It is transported on a truck to an abattoir. They crush each other on the back of that truck because they are packed so close to each other. Imagine you had to stand on the back of a truck and you have no arms to push as you are tossed around. If one animal falls it is trampled to death by the other panicked animals.

At the abattoir the animals can smell death is coming. The last messages that the animal’s body is filled with is fear and dread. Could that be why our McDonnalds stapled societies are so paranoid and prozaced. We feed on death and pain. The last message of the hormones’ that we digest from these carcases were “flight or fight”.

There are alternative to eating meat.

Thank you for your views - I really appreciated your input.

Well maybe. Just look at what "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair. He changed national polocies about meat processing, maybe that'll happen agian, but that won't happen until it hits a low. Until someone is able to draw a parralell between people getting sick and the artificial horomones in meat.
But i will still firmly stand behind that you will never be able to stop all people from eating meat. It will not happen.
You don't have to tell me how they kill the animals. I've heard in graphic detail how it is done. Step by step. And dispite that I still eat meat.
Though i am wondering would you eat meat if it were more like how it was with the Native Americans. They killed the animal to survive, they let nothing go to waste. They respected the animal for its sacrifice.
I don't know. Though this does change my view of your piece. don't get me wrong its still a great piece, but it resonates in a much diffrent way now.

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"You don't think much of women on ships do you?"

It is never been my intention to stop people from eating meat.
My intention has been to make people think about what they eat.

I think it is great that you first thought "cows are people too" meant something else.
The work can be interpreted in many different ways.
that is the wonderful thing about art...
we all think differently and that is clear when two people look at the same picture but see different things in it.
We see the work differently because we think differently.

My work never has one meaning!
You can see it any way you wish.

This work was part of a series on black and white things...
to show that things are rarely "black and white"
Life is full of gray areas.

The series of black and white cows also had a voxterrier dog with black and white spots in and a woman dressed in black and white... and they all were "classified" as cows in the work.

Cows can be people...
...and people can be cows

My aim has never been to get other people to think like I do. Imagine how boring life would be if we were all the same.
I just like playing with concepts and ideas.
My art helps me communicate possibilities.

I do what I THINK I have to.
Other people must do what they THINK they have to.
some days I THINK I like to make other people THINK
and other days I don't know what I was THINKING

but thinking is the aim of the process
...as Descartes said:
"I think therefore I am"

...or is that "I am therefore I think?"
or "I think therefore I think I am?"

possibilities!
possibilities!
possibilities!

interesting.

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"You don't think much of women on ships do you?"

Cows are not people, they`re food