Nothing is Hidden

Steps in the process of painting:

My mother lives next to a dairy farm. That week, she could barely sleep for the sound of cows mooing. Normally they were pretty quiet, but suddenly they were making so much noise that it kept her up at night. She spoke with her neighbor about how much noise they were making, and the neighbor informed her that they're making so much noise because their babies have been taken away from them.

Their noise was them desperately calling out for their babies.

I feel so stupid and ignorant because I didn't know that this is how we get milk. I thought before that they produced milk naturally, under no special circumstances (I played too much Stardew Valley). But cows only produce milk when they've had a baby. Their lives are a constant cycle of forcible impregnatation, and then as soon as they give birth, their babies are taken from them. Both mother and baby hurt for this loss. They experience real pain and trauma for the separation.

From there I learned more about farming and the treatment of animals in factory farms.

Grey-headed albatross chicks

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