My Chicken Artwork. What do my Fellow BYC'ers think?

[ChickyChooky]

Another update of my piece I am working on now.

Hi, draco19,

I love your artwork. It's really great, as I said before. You said that you wanted to avoid using hens in cages for your "Confinement" assignment. I'm just curious though. How do these pieces relate to "confinement"? They're great, but I don't quite see the relationship. The only thing that I can see after long thought, was that the Kingfisher was confined to the area due to his feeding needs. Can you think of a way of making that more obvious to the onlooker?

What about a hawk who hunts for his master before returning to his gloved hand? Or, maybe, those birds (Cormorants?) used by fisherman whose necks are banded to prevent them from swallowing the fish the capture? Hope you don't mind my suggestions. Just a thought.

You won't believe this, but I was on eBay the other day looking for Poultry Water Nipple Feeders, and a seller from Hong Kong was selling 50 of them for a good price, but.... I was put off by this photo he posted:

Unbelievable! Huh! I sent him an email saying that the Western society are gradually moving away from caged chickens to freerange and that he might lose some customers in the Western world if he posted photos of this sort, etc. I wrote it as diplomatically as I could and hoped he had a good translator or understood English fairly well himself. That was a few days ago, I think. I haven't heard anything back yet. Maybe I won't!

ChickyChooky

 

[Chikenbutwut]

You're a Darling, Chickenbutwut, (I love your comical choice in name. That tells me that you have a great sense of humour! I bet that helps at times. I know that mine does!)

What you said in your post, really "got to me." I couldn't help but shed some tears. My heart went out to you. Everything you said, not just this (but, probably, the part that did it for me! Lol!):

Quote: "Just to sign my own name is really hard for me some days and doing artwork can be darnright painful, so I've had to give it up. I miss it so much. Some days I look at my artwork that I have framed and on my wall, and cry 'cause I know I can't do it anymore. "

I really feel for you. Well, not a lot of consolation, but, at least, you were able to produce wonderful pieces of artwork that you could proudly put on your wall. Not everyone can say that!

Actually, I've often thought how lucky I am that I'm a creative person like yourself. Can you imagine what it must be like for those people who aren't creative at all or aren't interested in things like that as they approach their latter years? Then, there are those people who don't seem to enjoy having pets around or even enjoy the fruits of gardening. I feel so sad for those people because they don't know what they are missing.

Actually, I'm headed in the same direction as yourself, sad to say. I'm only 57 but there are others who've got Rheumatoid Arthritus much younger. Even children, sad to say. I've had pain in my hips for many years which started a little to begin with after my first child and have recently been told that I, also, have Rheumatoid Arthritus there. Quite some years ago, I had to, finally, concede that I was unable to dance or teach Flamenco any more due to knee problems, so I know and understand how frustrating, deeply sad and gut renching it can be to let something go that you deeply loved doing. Due to those Flamenco Dancing and Teaching days, my knees have suffered, and, now, besides the RA there, I'm losing power in my legs and can't get up from the ground without using something to pull myself up. I've done some research and it seems that it is more than likely connected to the RA that has recently developed in my spine. Pins and needles started in my right hand and was getting worse. (yep! I'm right-handed! Grrr!) When I told the doctor, he just brushed it off saying that it was probably just stress. Just stress! When I asked whether there might be other probable causes, he said, yes. So, I insisted on the tests required. He was quite surprised when he discovered that I had Cervical Spondylotis! (A pinched nerve in my neck caused by RA). Gosh! I wish my old doctor hadn't moved! He was such a good doctor and had a lovely disposition or bedside manner!

Good grief! Girl! I've just looked up "Fibromyalgia". You poor thing! I might have the same problem! Or something similar. I had a rather bad fall in my backyard some weeks back, and my ankle landed rather heavily on a brick that I had left lying around or sticking out. The ankle was rather badly bruised but I was fine. Unfortunately, pain started to creep up and down the left side from my hip to my ankle and kept getting worse! By the end of every evening, I was in quite a lot of pain and couldn't sleep because of it. When I spoke to the doctor about it, he simply said in a dismissive way, "Oh, the fall must've exacerbated your RA." Terr...rrrific!

After trying the third medication, he said that he couldn't do anything more for me. (Trust me to have unusual or rare reactions to them!) I told him that the pain killers (the third ones prescribed) made me feel groggy so instead of taking them 3 times a day as he prescribed, I was only using them at night before going to sleep, and that I could put up with the varying pain during the day. He just said, "That's good! The less you take, the better!" I try to do without them, if I'm not too bad.

You, also, must've gone through a lot when you were trying to sort out what was going on with your body.

So, bless you! Tammy! You've given me more incentive to sort my house out as quick as possible as it got left in disarray because I was leaving myself last, especially since my daughter left the nest. She's getting better at living in the big wide world as I don't hear from her as much as I used to. She doesn't need my help or advice as much any more. So that's good. But, I still need to visit my Father 2 to 3 times a week, keep an eye on his bills, etc. He's completely bedridden and can hardly do anything for himself any longer. At least, he still recognizes me. I have to organize phone calls for his other daughters who are interstate as he can't use his hands properly and can't hear very well. Then, I have a sister here whom I have to take for visits as well, of course. I have three sisters in all.

Oooh! Gosh! Tammy! I have gone on, haven't I!

So, I'd better sign off before I think of anything else to say! This is suppose to be a chicken forum! Lol!

Best wishes,

ChickyChooky

P.S. Yes. Thought of something else but it is important! Lol! I love your Avatar that you used! I gather it is one of your own pieces of artwork? It's delightful. You can see the humour in it as well.

Thank you so very much for all you said. It really meant a lot.

I'm so sorry you have RA as well. You could very well have Fibromyalgia (FMS), as many times the two go hand in hand. A lot of people develop FMS after getting RA. Injury can also set it off. It sounds as though you need a new doctor...it's terrible that he didn't check you for FMS instead of dismissing things. I know that finding doctors that have a good bedside manner and who are understanding and sympathetic can be hard these days though. I've had to try out quite a few different doctors before finding good ones. My Rheumatologist I have now isn't the greatest, but he's far better than the one I had.

There are other medications out there for RA and other ways of going about treating it (if medications that you can tolerate cannot be found). A really helpful website out there is rawarrior.com. The website is a wealth of information. The owner of the site is working very hard with others to bring more awareness and more funding to RA research as well. She, as well as others, are also fighting to get the name of this disease changed from Rheumatoid Arthritis to Rheumatoid Disease because it truly is far more than just arthritis. Another great site is rheum4us.com (it's the RA Patient Foundation).

I'm glad I gave you incentive. Bless you too for all of your kind words. I'm so sorry to hear about your father, but am glad he has you.

Thank you about my avatar...it's not my work, but I thought it was cute. My user name is a play off of "Guess what chicken butt?" that my daughter use to say. We'll all say it to each other now and laugh, lol!

If you ever need someone to talk to about your RA...or just anything in general...feel free to PM me. And again, thank you so much!

Best wishes to you as well!

Tammy

 

[dracoe19]

I have great respect for both of you going through what you have been. I know I already have issues with my right hand and neck and I'm only 20! I know it is definitely nothing compared to what yOu both have been going through. I have a dear friend who has the same ailments and I do barn work for her when she is in to much pain to do so. If only things like this were as easy to be rid of as a cold. Hopefully one day it will.

Hmm yeah. I tried another kingfisher. I had started on another which I was going to do the confinement being positive an example being pregnant/ the womb. I started a X-ray view of a chicken egg but stopped. It's sad to say but people at school give me a lot of grief sometimes for doing chickens and it gets to me... It's hard to defend myself inform of my class. I wish I had done a battery cage hen but my class wouldn't understand the gravity of the conditions and why I drew it. They would probably say something along the lines of, "why couldn't you have used something like a person in a box?" (Which half the class did mind you!) or "why not a "insert random animal/ object"?" Or they all would have sat there in silents. It is so frustrating that I have a passion out side of just art school and because no one understands it they think it is stupid. I know I'll probably get grief for this one because it is a bird too :/. Oh well I'm just ignoring my niece classmates for the most part now. I wish I had seen your suggestions earlier before I started. I guess now I put a "deeper meaning" on this one. Kind of the circle of life/ even the brave are striked down (using a beta which is as many know a aggressive fighting fish). Kinda an abstract piece but I'm gladiator was finally able to do something fairly realistic. Also thank you so much for your input. I rarely get very much creative criticism .

Seeing that picture would have turned me off as well. But looking at it in the bright side these facilities look clean, well kept and there are windows. I, of course, prefer to have my chickens free roaming but if they absolutely HAD to cage them like this that facility looks pretty good. Still not ideal but better than those horrid ones that I'm sure everyone has seen and gotten quite upset about.

Heres and update on what I am working on.

 

[dracoe19]

 

[PekinBantam]

Cool! It's awesome... Just wondering, is that fish in his stomach a beta?

 

[dracoe19]

Yup. I was going to put a type of fish they normally eat but all of them were dull grey. Soooo I decided to use a beta! Lol.

 

[PekinBantam]

Yup. I was going to put a type of fish they normally eat but all of them were dull grey. Soooo I decided to use a beta! Lol.

that's great! The color vaguely reminds me of my 2nd beta...

 

[dracoe19]

A silly doodle of some animals waiting for the bus

 

[YellowHouseFarm]

I love them all what a gift from God!

 

[YellowHouseFarm]

I love them all what a gift from God!