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RJDaae — A Cry in the Dark

Published: 2010-02-23 22:24:55 +0000 UTC; Views: 7061; Favourites: 151; Downloads: 71
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Description Raven's Child is washing the water,
All of her wing-feathers blackened with tar,
Prince William shoreline's an unwanted highway,
Of asphalt and anger, an elegant scar

from 'Raven's Child', by John Denver: [link]


This is my entry for 's Black and White Contest: [link]

The theme was (obviously) 'black and white'. These didn't need to be the only, or main, colours in the entries (you could go more into figurative ideas of 'black and white'), but they were the only ones that I chose to paint with.

I wanted to get the theme across not only in my choice of colours, but in contrasting the idea of the 'purity' (white) of nature with the 'environmental evil' (black) that humans are capable of inflicting on it.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, this is a painting of an oil spill. The bird is an endangered Marbled Murrelet, a seabird species that has suffered especially from oil spills, with an estimated nearly 9,000 individuals killed in the Exxon Valdez disaster alone.

For someone who loves using colour as much as I do, being limited to only black and white was an interesting experience. I think that the 'idea' of colour still manages to get across, though, and I'm very happy with the end result.

Acrylic on Bristol board, 9x7 inches


Ways to help with the Gulf Oil Spill
Related content
Comments: 96

RJDaae In reply to ??? [2012-07-18 06:11:56 +0000 UTC]

Thank you!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Soullose [2011-12-01 10:20:44 +0000 UTC]

Ahh this is really a sad and beautiful at the same time the work was done with much love
Can i edit this for a cover of a internet hobbybook?! This book is about the cruelty to animals is done to

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

RJDaae In reply to Soullose [2011-12-03 21:44:29 +0000 UTC]

Thank you! I'm glad you like it!

I'm not sure if I'd be comfortable letting you use it for your book cover. Could you give me some more information about it so I can decide?

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Soullose In reply to RJDaae [2011-12-04 16:54:11 +0000 UTC]

Sure but my english...sorry for that. Here is the page.
[link]

This is a community for amateur writers. There is nothing to sell but one can upload his free texts there and publish it in one form ebooks. It is used for pure hobby thing. The book for which I would use your image as a cover, is a short story about a woman who has spent her life for years , animals all over the world to worry about. She sees the world as cruel to, because so many innocent animals have to die.

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RJDaae In reply to Soullose [2011-12-09 02:14:05 +0000 UTC]

I've sent you a note. ^_^

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Soullose In reply to RJDaae [2011-12-09 16:02:15 +0000 UTC]

Thank u ^.^

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Charlene-Art [2011-11-12 15:52:41 +0000 UTC]

This is beautiful and sad. Great use of black and white and I really like the texture of the brush-strokes. Well done.

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RJDaae In reply to Charlene-Art [2011-11-13 20:02:03 +0000 UTC]

Thank you!

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SanguineEpitaph [2011-10-25 03:31:47 +0000 UTC]

Hi! I wanted to let you know that I featured this piece of art in a news article called, Take Action! Keystone XL Pipeline , which is about the tar sands in Alberta, Canada and how we should take action to stop the installation of an extensive oil pipeline that will destroy a mass of land larger than the United Kingdom!

Please take the time to look at the article, and I will be supremely overjoyed if you also help spread the word! Thank you!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

RJDaae In reply to SanguineEpitaph [2011-10-25 12:44:48 +0000 UTC]

Thank you for the feature!
And thank you for writing an article about this important issue! I hope lots of people make it to the event! (Wish I could. )

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

SanguineEpitaph In reply to RJDaae [2011-10-28 18:23:15 +0000 UTC]

No problem! I hope it helps spread the word. c:

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

commonnighthawk [2011-05-20 07:13:49 +0000 UTC]

Great. I like the detail of the bird and how the oil slick is coming from the silhouette oil tanker. The used of dark colors help show the sadness of the loss of wildlife to oil spill. Black and white, I think was the best choice for this piece.

Thanks for sharing it.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

RJDaae In reply to commonnighthawk [2011-05-20 13:36:21 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for so such a nice comment!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Shadow-D-Keeper [2011-05-10 22:00:27 +0000 UTC]

This has been featured here [link]

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

RJDaae In reply to Shadow-D-Keeper [2011-05-11 12:40:14 +0000 UTC]

Thank you!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Shadow-D-Keeper In reply to RJDaae [2011-05-12 15:32:11 +0000 UTC]

No problem

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Baz135 [2011-01-23 06:33:42 +0000 UTC]

Have you seen this? [link]

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

RJDaae In reply to Baz135 [2011-01-24 23:07:39 +0000 UTC]

No...
*sighs* I wish they'd asked me first, but at least they credited everything they used. I don't see much of a point in me getting mad at them (as much as I dislike country music), but you should probably tell the other artists, because they'd probably want to know about their work's being used. Thanks for telling me about it! I'm going to go comment on the video now.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Baz135 In reply to RJDaae [2011-01-24 23:21:20 +0000 UTC]

I was just browsing around Youtube when suddenly, "Wait, I know that painting! "

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

GilWarzecha [2010-06-14 21:49:53 +0000 UTC]

Did you want to enter this in Social Commentary's contest at [link] ?

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

RJDaae In reply to GilWarzecha [2010-06-15 15:17:13 +0000 UTC]

I might enter it, but seeing as there is a '1 entry per member' rule, I'll have to wait and see a little longer if I can think of anything else to make as an entry. Thanks for asking!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

GilWarzecha In reply to RJDaae [2010-06-16 19:14:08 +0000 UTC]

Let me know which you want to enter.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

RJDaae In reply to GilWarzecha [2010-06-16 23:12:55 +0000 UTC]

Okay, thanks!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

tam2u [2010-05-30 04:48:24 +0000 UTC]

This image has been featured here [link]

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

RJDaae In reply to tam2u [2010-05-30 14:37:06 +0000 UTC]

Thanks!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

tam2u In reply to RJDaae [2010-05-30 17:15:29 +0000 UTC]

Thank you for caring enough to share your work at this horrible time

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

RJDaae In reply to tam2u [2010-05-30 18:41:54 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

ArtByCher [2010-05-22 12:33:06 +0000 UTC]

This has been featured here [link] and here [link] Please fav the article so it will gain more exposure. And thank you for your work during this crisis

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

RJDaae In reply to ArtByCher [2010-05-23 14:10:04 +0000 UTC]

Thanks so much!

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ArtByCher In reply to RJDaae [2010-05-23 15:19:21 +0000 UTC]

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Lunchi [2010-05-05 17:40:34 +0000 UTC]

aw I love that you took part of that beautiful song for the painting. It fits perfectly.
You did very well with painting that oil stream, it looks exactly like on the photos of the recent oil spill
I really hope they can still save most of the nature and finally repair those leaks.

👍: 0 ⏩: 2

RJDaae In reply to Lunchi [2010-05-06 00:18:30 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, I hope they get it fixed soon. There's a lot of people helping, at least. I even read about an organization that's using hair clippings to soak up the oil! I wrote an article about it: [link]
Thank you! It's one of my favourite JD songs.

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Lunchi In reply to RJDaae [2010-05-06 18:19:06 +0000 UTC]

Wow hair clips? Funny. I hope they are successful.

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Lunchi In reply to Lunchi [2010-05-05 18:35:49 +0000 UTC]

The oil king sits on his arrogant throne, away and above and apart. Lawyers have warned him, he mustnt speak. Greed has made silent what once was a heart.

...People are too greedy for money. They should never be allowed to dig for oil in the ocean. Even if that means for us to not drive anymore cars.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

baby-snakes [2010-05-05 00:59:19 +0000 UTC]

hey I have featured your beautiful work in my news article here [link] Gulf Coast Wildlife, a Memorial.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

RJDaae In reply to baby-snakes [2010-05-05 01:13:05 +0000 UTC]

Thanks so much!

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Tilebus7 [2010-05-01 09:20:22 +0000 UTC]

A nicely done look at the Truth, in Art form.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

RJDaae In reply to Tilebus7 [2010-05-01 18:17:18 +0000 UTC]

Thank you!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Tilebus7 In reply to RJDaae [2010-05-02 00:55:31 +0000 UTC]

Ya welcome.
Great concept.
Really.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

tmulcahy [2010-04-30 04:15:28 +0000 UTC]

Wow!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

RJDaae In reply to tmulcahy [2010-04-30 14:49:58 +0000 UTC]

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ArtByCher [2010-03-20 01:25:54 +0000 UTC]

This is so sad. Executed very well

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

RJDaae In reply to ArtByCher [2010-03-20 04:31:56 +0000 UTC]

Thank you!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

ArtByCher In reply to RJDaae [2010-03-20 12:38:21 +0000 UTC]

Your welcome

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

meihua [2010-03-03 05:09:12 +0000 UTC]

That is really sad I think the stark contrast of the b/w really helps get the message across

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

RJDaae In reply to meihua [2010-03-03 21:51:51 +0000 UTC]

Thanks!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

alx2000 [2010-03-01 05:59:48 +0000 UTC]

Simple and awesome.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

RJDaae In reply to alx2000 [2010-03-01 22:30:03 +0000 UTC]

Thanks!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Tenshizuru [2010-02-28 22:44:47 +0000 UTC]

It's beautiful. That group is massively stupid for rejecting this.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

RJDaae In reply to Tenshizuru [2010-03-01 04:06:08 +0000 UTC]

I'm glad you like it!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0


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