Sometimes when a conservation message is shared, it’s too depressing or feels too big for us to deal with, so we avoid it and disengage. I choose to use my art to reach people in a way that touches on some of these hard topics, but hopefully gets them to respond in a positive way that leads to changes in personal behavior. We can have huge impact by changing what we eat and where we spend our money. My painting showcases the damage done to the Gulf of California, through the unsustainable harvest of shrimp. Making the connection to what we eat, I used a pretty shrimp platter as my metaphor, with unsustainably harvested shrimp, and by-catch – the many animals, big and small, affected by this practice. I have intentionally skewed size relationships of animals because that little tasty shrimp has a huge impact on the home of all animals in the Gulf, big and small. I want people to think about their eating habits, and how it affects the animals they care about. If they remember this painting, and think twice about what the “cocktail sauce” represents, then I have made a positive impact. We can all make small changes in our personal lives that can have a large combined positive impact. Eating sustainable seafood is one way of doing this.