Thursday, May 9, 2013

World Ocean Day Book Release!


World Ocean Day Book Release!

JUNE 8th - 2013

21st Century - The Age of Protection

Not only a voice for the ocean;
              This is a journey of an artist”




 Six long years in the making and the book is finally complete!  
  

30 Days before the World Ocean Day Ebook Launch an Indiegogo Campaign was launched to "Help" this new very informative book that gives Marine Life a Voice become a paperback book to be donated to schools and libraries. This book was compiled of facts of marine life slaughters, government actions and non-action, and organizations from grass-roots up doing great work.


'EDUCATE to ACTIVATE' Help '21st Century - The Age Of Protection' Into Schools by joining the campaign


There is an Ocean Crisis that needs to be truthfully told &
Why Not through a Visual Voice!

This book has created a visual voice for thousands of marine life calls for action! From sharks, whales, seals, dolphins, turtles, and mass communities by overfishing. These lives have a story that need to be told in order to stop the attrocities inflicted upon them.

A lot of great action from Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been documented on a few paintings along with the immediate story on how their actions inspired me to paint them with the whales and seals - Chapters 2 & 3 & 6


Summary from the Book:

"We along with several other species, are being faced with the possibility of extinction.  As a result of extensive research, I have drawn the conclusion that sometime within the past 50-60 years, 90% of everything living on the planet has been affected in a devastating manner.  As an example, currently only 10% of wild lions, sharks and coral reefs remain.  Deforestation is becoming as commonplace as climate change.  One thing is for certain:  Homo sapiens are directly responsible for these atrocities against nature.



A crucial and urgent choice faces us:  we can either continue on this path of extinction or immediately start to protect what we love - LIFE!

I wrote this book in response to the issue of shark finning, initially raised over six years ago with the release of the film, Sharkwater.  At that time, my paintings reflected current issues affecting the world’s oceans, and how we, as a species, were literally transforming this biosphere into a world of waste and consumption.  I also became better acquainted with the conservation actions of Sea Shepherd and their Antarctic whaling campaigns. 


These issues were really brought home for me, when I became personally involved in the first land campaign to bring awareness to the dolphin and whale slaughter happening annually in Taiji, Japan; witnessed the collapse of the seal pelt industry as a result of world exposure of the Canadian harp seal slaughter, and finally saw legal protections enacted for sea turtles.


I have recreated these issues on canvas, providing a face and voice to help one understand the issues as described in the following chapters."


I believe in this book after putting so much time in researching and documenting over the years. This journey showed me what passion truly is and how compassion is such a powerful feeling.


Let's give the children the tools of "Truth" so this world has a chance to speak and positive changes can occur.



21st Century - The Age of Protection

Chapter Paintings & Description



This painting is one of my awareness paintings that speaks visually for the sharks. Sharks are being killed by the millions annually, 90 million actually for their fins alone. That means the fins are removed and the living body is thrown back to the ocean to lessen the weight on the ship to allow more fins to be stored. These fins are then sold mostly to Hong Kong, China and around the world to Chinese medicine shops and restaurants. Shark fin soup is the main item for the fins and can be sold between $25 and $150 a bowl.

This is the 1st Chapter of my book "21st Century - The Age of Protection" 

This is one of my awareness paintings that I painted the visual voice for the whales. The whales are suppose to be protected from a International Moratorium put in place in 1986 by the International Whaling Commission. The Japanese government fails to abide by this protection and uses the word "Research" as their reasons to travel tens of thousands of miles to kill 1035 whales annually. This painting also speaks about the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society that upholds international law to stop the killing of the whales and protect them in the whale sanctuary.

This is the Second Chapter of my book "21st Century - The Age of Protection"


The story behind this painting is regarding the 2008 global impacts on harp seals in Canada. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society had a ship of the Canadian coast in International waters witnessing the seal hunt. Later the European Union banned the purchase of Harp Seal Fur from Canada.

This is the 3rd Chapter of my book "21st Century - The Age of Protection" 

This is one of my awareness paintings for the Dolphins. It gives one a visual voice to share the struggles that dolphins that pass by a small town in Japan called Taiji have to endure. With 23,000 dolphins killed annually in Japan's waters and the removal of young female orphan dolphins into entertainment industries this story must be told!

This is the 4th Chapter of my book "21st Century - The Age of Protection" 

This is one of my awareness paintings that gives a visual voice for the Sea Turtles. There are only seven species of sea turtles and all of them are either endangered or threatened or both. They have so much going against them naturally with survival however when adding in the human species actions the turtles survival is grave. Many good action is happening very slowly but it is happening.

This painting is the 5th Chapter of my book "21st Century - The Age of Protection"

This is one of my awareness paintings that give a visual story of Overfishing and the plight of the Blue Fin Tuna. This action is depleting the ocean of millions of species and causing such an unsustainable action that will ultimately cause the collapse of the commercial fishing industry globally. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Ships are painted into this canvas and story due to their campaign in 2010 called Blue Rage where they set out to stop poaching of the Blue Fin Tuna.

This is the 6th Chapter of my book "21st Century - The Age of Protection" 

Thank you
Bob Timmons
Artist, Author, Activist
ArtistfortheOcean.com