Artist advocates animal rights by depicting real-life stories

Sue Coe entered her opening reception with a freshly tattooed forearm picturing an elephant drawn by a GCSU art student.

“I love this place. I had such a good time and I want to remember it,” Coe said.

Coe’s work is on display in the Museum of Fine Arts. She has worked as an illustrator for such prestigious publications as The New York Times, The New Yorker and Esquire magazine. But curator Carlos Herrera wanted to move beyond her commercial works.

“I wanted to show her talents for prints, drawings and paintings,” Herrera said.

Coe’s work focuses on the treatment animals receive in slaughterhouses, circuses and during shipping. She documents instances of animal abuse, such as a ship that sank with thousands of sheep aboard. Several pieces featured elephants, which she was particularly fascinated with.

Coe sees herself as a visual journalist, as each work displayed is based on a true story. One such piece shows an elephant being electrocuted. This instance is based on the story of Thomas Edison’s electric chair. To show the sheer power of the chair, he used an elephant as a guinea pig.

“I like that she’s making people aware of these issues,” Herrera said. “These are serious issues we don’t get to hear about.”

Coe combines her images with words to give her work more impact. The subject matter is tragic, but Coe means to educate through her work.

“(I like) the fact that it’s got meaning, it’s not just pretty pictures,” senior art major Taryn Giles said.

Coe’s life experiences have contributed to her work. She was raised in London near a slaughterhouse, and she volunteered for Earthwatch, a nonprofit that focuses on environmental issues. The organization sent her to Sri Lanka, where she first encountered elephants.

When she selects a topic, she makes many pieces, not just five or six. Each piece is part of a series. Her work with elephants was a major part of her works that were shown at GCSU.

“(The topics) choose me. I wait a while and see if I can commit to the work,” Coe said.

In addition to an opening reception, Coe also gave a lecture about her work, showing pieces that supplemented the gallery exhibit. She also gave critiques to art students.

“She was very honest, more so than we’ve gotten before,” Giles said.

Coe left impressed by the work of GCSU students.

“They’ve come up with a lot of ideas,” Coe said. “There’s a lot of optimism about the future.”

Posted by Claire Kersey on Apr 9 2010. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry