Artwork to be Displayed at Farm Aid Festival

It's amazing how opportunities present themselves. It seems like when you least expect it, things fall into place.  Thyra Moore, an artist I met during the Art Biz Success Lancaster Mastermind Workshop, sent me a Facebook message about a call for art that she thought was "right up my alley".

Artwork was being sought to bring attention to the dairy farm crisis currently happening throughout the country. "The US has lost over half its dairy farmers in the past sixteen years while prices for dairy farmers have crashed below 1970 prices. Dairy farmers are in crisis, largely due to the broken pricing system and rampant corruption in the dairy industry" according to National Family Farm Coalition. The organizers of the call for art, Anna Hankins and Katie Blanchard, are curating an art show to be displayed at this year's Farm Aid Festival and concert in Hartford, CT on September 22. They also hope to tour the artwork at the winter farming conferences in key dairy regions - the Northeast, central Midwest, and Central Valley of CA.

After reading the call, I was very excited to submit work for such an important cause. One of the main goals for my art is to serve as a platform to create connections between the larger, non-farming population and the people that choose to dedicate their life to agriculture. I decided to send framed archival prints of "The Neighbors" and "Curious #601" for the multiple stop tour. These paintings depict cows that were once apart of the southern New Jersey dairy industry. Local farms with generations of family in the milk industry have had to make difficult decisions in response to the dairy crisis. Unfortunately, the farmers have since sold the cows and stopped producing milk.

I am proud that the paintings were chosen to be apart of this mission. I hope the paintings I created can shine some light on how the dairy crisis has forever changed the lives of local farmers and the community landscape here in southern New Jersey. I'll be sure to share updates of the specifics of the farm conference tour when I receive updates from Anna and Katie. Stay tuned!

"The Neighbors" - 10" x 8" - Acrylics on Gessobord by Kimberly English © 2015

Original painting available for purchase.

"Curious #601" - Acrylics on Canvas - 8" x 6" by Kimberly English © 2015

Original painting sold

You can read more about the Dairy Family Farm Crisis by clicking here