First ever attempt at a hand-drawn comic from start to finish. I've always had a dark sense of humour and couldn't resist illustrating my fractured fairy-tale take on this beloved nursery rhyme! In my version, poor Mary faces the violent reality of where her food comes from and decides that she wants her Lamb back!
Even though this comic may seem grotesque or even silly, it's based on the true story of my earliest experiences of understanding what meat is, where it comes from, and thinking about the personhood of nonhumans.
After several years of vegetarianism, I made the personal choice that a vegetarian diet didn't work for me and didn't solve the problems when I took into consideration the equally disasterous environmental and nonhuman personhood issues in plant crop production.
Not wanting to take sides, participate in species-based hierarchies, or value some kinds of lives more than others, I now recognise and participate in food chains where I accept myself as potential prey to other beings and support ethical and cultural food production in my eating choices instead.
I highly recommend 'Being Prey' by Val Plumwood as an interesting starting point for thinking of humans as part of ecological food chains, of meat as a Country-determined source of nourishment, and of the complex navigations between natural and man-made food production systems.
*Artworks and images of artworks belong to Sara Kian-Judge 2022
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