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A stylized color sketch in the Furry style. On the right, a 25-year-old anthropomorphic wolf, medium build, neatly groomed, wearing a loose green t-shirt with a white peace emblem and baggy denim pants. He stands half-turned to the left, looking back over his shoulder, head and ears lowered, tail tucked between his legs. His expression is surprised, alarmed, and sad. To the left, a crowd of anthropomorphic herbivore animals faces the wolf. Among them: an anthropomorphic rabbit frantically screaming "Predator!" and pointing a finger at the wolf, head raised; an anthropomorphic sheep with a terrified expression, holding a crying lamb; a burly bull with a pitchfork, charging forward with an angry expression. Other herbivores include angry deers shaking their fists, worried gazelles clutching their heads, and frightened mice hiding behind legs. All characters wear casual clothing and are looking at the wolf. Outline style: wide quick strokes with a black pencil overlapping one another to emphasize the contours. Fill: colored, pure solid pour, warm hues with soft transitions. Skillful, emotional, inspiring, detailed, hand-drawn sketching. The background is plain white, occasionally filled with simple pencil strokes.
Although I dedicated this painting to Diversity Saturday, it is not really about diversity itself. Some social issues do not emerge out of nowhere. Most of them are the result of social paradigms, outdated views of the world, and natural instincts that have never truly disappeared. One such misconception, in my view, is the belief that people always have a choice.
The nature of choice is far more complicated than it seems. Imagine yourself in a restaurant. You can choose anything from the menu, but can you choose what is on the menu today? If you do not like those dishes, you can choose another restaurant in the city, but can you choose which restaurants exist there?
The great paradox of choice - it is usually reduced to a limited set of options from which we can choose. We have little or no influence over the conditions and circumstances that shape those options. Our choices are constantly constrained. On one side, there are external factors such as time and place. On the other, there are our own cognitive abilities, age, and health. Sometimes our own biases become the greatest barrier to seeing all the possibilities before us.
Even the freedom to make decisions seems somewhat tragic to me. We may base our choices on someone else's dogmas, social trends, or public expectations. Or, on the contrary, we may be guided by our own shortsightedness, emotions, carelessness, and convictions, things we do not always control. And even when a decision is thoughtful and carefully calculated, was it truly our choice, or had logic, rationality, and obviousness already chosen on our behalf? At times, it seems that we do not really choose at all. We merely ratify a choice being made.
When we choose to be ourselves, are we defying the judgment of others, or simply acknowledging our inability to change something within us? When we choose to become better, do we decide what it means to be "better," or are those standards quietly whispered into our ears by someone else?
It seems to me that, in order to accept diversity, we are missing one simple understanding: none of us chooses our skin color, sex, or sexual orientation. No one chooses the illnesses they are born with, the illnesses that may one day take their life, or when that moment will come. Nature gives us no choice in being tall or short, strong or frail, gifted or unremarkable. How we live with these things is perhaps the only choice that truly belongs to us. I do not know whether every choice deserves respect; but I believe it should never be condemned.
So this painting is not quite about diversity, equality, or prejudice. It is about the courage to search for choice where we have been deprived of it.
P.S. I sincerely thank all the dreamers who, through their artworks, unknowingly keep making me publish my own dreams. Without them, I probably would not have dared to continue.
