A Mother's Dream of a Better Future, oil on canvas by Cindy Billingsley. "Surreal painting of Rhino Poaching. Mother at bottom dreams of a better future for next generation. Sky red from ones lost, crack is problem increasing, tree is life, Africa hangs it's head on tree. Art should come from the heart of the artist, it should engage the audience, it should connect with the community, it should start a dialog, a debate. It should get people to look at things in a way they have not thought of, or to see what they have looked at but not really seen. Art has to come deeply from the artist, there has to be raw emotion and honesty in the work if it is to connect with people. An Artist paints and sculpts what they know. I speak through paint and clay.

William Faulkner said it best ~ The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it it moves again since it is life.

The pose or look of an endangered animal or the presence of a figure in clay is what the artist is saying about a time, about a moment in nature or life, to reflect humanity to itself, to hold a mirror up to nature."

Take a look at Cindy's websites http://www.cindybillingsley.com/Home/Home.html and http://www.animalscindybillingsley.com/