Introduction

I'm a freelance illustrator/designer/art director and if you think I can help with your project, want to offer words of encouragement or simply say hi, feel free to get in touch.

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Wednesday 16 April 2014

Where the eagles soar

I've always enjoyed reading about the small pockets of civilization that continue to live with their culture relatively unchanged for hundreds, if not thousands of years, so I was fascinated  by a story on the BBC about a Kazakh girl who is training to hunt with a golden eagle amongst the Altai mountain range in western Mongolia.

The article and the accompanying photographs by Asher Svidensky were the inspiration for this illustration.


Now I want a Golden Eagle. Even more.

4 comments:

  1. That will be a Pixar movie soon, I predict.

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    Replies
    1. If they had themes on which to construct an appropriate story then there's enough character and style in this world to have a lot of fun with.

      It would be lovely to see this world brought to life, and even lovelier to be a part of it :-)

      Delete
  2. As long as everyone understands that Ahser Svidensky and Otto Bell did not do their research to learn that Aisholpan is not first in 2000 years, and that there is no glass ceiling. Bell based his views on Svidensky's. The BBC did not fact check before releasing Asher's words as truth. Reference Adrienne Mayor who has evidence for present day and ancient times female participation in the activity(nothing to do with country membership, as Kazakh eagle hunting spans border area and is shared CULTURE). And the fact is that there are some girls who go out eagle hunting with their fathers in Ulgii area too. A source in Ulgii told me that. Aishoplan joins a legacy, and she worked very hard in the making of the "documentary". The culture is eagalitarian and thus the "documentary" and it's marketing to date has been based on cultural misrepresentaion. The producer Morgan Spurlock in an interview with Ondi Timoner even scoffed that women are suppressed from voting, and riding bikes and having careers (the interviewer not corrected by him and appeared to play along). The filmmaker and his team acknowledged that the other females exist/ed yet have done nothing to correct this misinformation publicly and it has been since Feb 7 that Otto Bell tweeted me that. Follow me on twitter to learn about this stuff. I hope that Sony who bought the "documentary" for around 5 million are aware of this and more- like the 1USD lifetime exclusive rights contract that was outed and that Otto Bell was trying to say was a peppercorn and which was signed without informed consent and only redone (reportedly) after the outing (see Tseren Enebish Talk with Me TV Mongolia and read my comments to know where to go in the interview). Neither Enebish or me knew she was not first either.And whatever animation companies are vying for the animation rights should also know all about the problematic issues and do right by history as should Sony. Aisholpan and her family and culture deserve respect FAR and above what the "documentary and it's marketing has done to date. It is purely shameful. I was there with the family when the contract was unearthed and outed. Alma, Aisholpan's mother called Tseren there to discuss that and other issues that she worried about. Shame that this ultimately may affect the girl and her family and her community and culture in ways yet to be further discovered. It is a mess! MeghanfjFitz is my twitter handle. I invite you to chime in there. I will not be reading responses to this here. There is too much I am trying to track as it is.

    ReplyDelete
  3. As long as everyone understands that Ahser Svidensky and Otto Bell did not do their research to learn that Aisholpan is not first in 2000 years, and that there is no glass ceiling. Bell based his views on Svidensky's. The BBC did not fact check before releasing Asher's words as truth. Reference Adrienne Mayor who has evidence for present day and ancient times female participation in the activity(nothing to do with country membership, as Kazakh eagle hunting spans border area and is shared CULTURE). And the fact is that there are some girls who go out eagle hunting with their fathers in Ulgii area too. A source in Ulgii told me that. Aishoplan joins a legacy, and she worked very hard in the making of the "documentary". The culture is eagalitarian and thus the "documentary" and it's marketing to date has been based on cultural misrepresentaion. The producer Morgan Spurlock in an interview with Ondi Timoner even scoffed that women are suppressed from voting, and riding bikes and having careers (the interviewer not corrected by him and appeared to play along). The filmmaker and his team acknowledged that the other females exist/ed yet have done nothing to correct this misinformation publicly and it has been since Feb 7 that Otto Bell tweeted me that. Follow me on twitter to learn about this stuff. I hope that Sony who bought the "documentary" for around 5 million are aware of this and more- like the 1USD lifetime exclusive rights contract that was outed and that Otto Bell was trying to say was a peppercorn and which was signed without informed consent and only redone (reportedly) after the outing (see Tseren Enebish Talk with Me TV Mongolia and read my comments to know where to go in the interview). Neither Enebish or me knew she was not first either.And whatever animation companies are vying for the animation rights should also know all about the problematic issues and do right by history as should Sony. Aisholpan and her family and culture deserve respect FAR and above what the "documentary and it's marketing has done to date. It is purely shameful. I was there with the family when the contract was unearthed and outed. Alma, Aisholpan's mother called Tseren there to discuss that and other issues that she worried about. Shame that this ultimately may affect the girl and her family and her community and culture in ways yet to be further discovered. It is a mess! MeghanfjFitz is my twitter handle. I invite you to chime in there. I will not be reading responses to this here. There is too much I am trying to track as it is.

    ReplyDelete