I suppose it makes sense that the first blog post I should make would be introducing myself. My name is Jesse. I'm a 24 year old living in Northern Kentucky with my husband and our four-legged children:
Salem- Our oldest feline child, we adopted her about 4.5 years ago.
Zelah- Our second feline child, we adopted her about 3 years ago.
Ninja- Our rat, and only boy, we rescued from being snake food about 2 years ago.
Aften- The baby and the coolest chihuahua you'll ever meet. She's a year & a half.
My husband is a musician and cosmetologist. I am a photographer and currently in college, but hopefully for not much longer. I am hoping to graduate in May 2012, but that all depends on whether or not I'll be able to pass the math class I put off for almost 6 years now. Ah!
I have always had an appreciation for art and photography. In my younger years, I primarily was interested in acting- but no matter where I was I always had my camera. Normally this was just to capture memories though. When I entered college I grew more and more interested in modeling, but I could never find photographers who could capture the look I visualized in my head... so I decided to try it out myself and ended up being more successful with that than I think I ever was with acting. That was almost 4 years ago and now I'm quite certain that art, particularly photography, is where I am going to make my career. I've become increasingly interested in film and performance art as well. Fashion, editorial and surreal fine art photography are my favorite styles to do- but I enjoy just about everything photography has to offer.
Veganism!
I never really enjoyed eating meat growing up, but it wasn't really because of any ethical reason... I just didn't like the texture of most of it. When I was in third grade we went on a field trip to a slaughterhouse (not entirely sure why my teacher thought that would be a good idea) but it was pretty horrible. I honestly don't remember much about it, I think I blocked most of it out, I do remember them pulling a live pig up by his or her foot with a chain and then their throat was slit while they thrashed around, suspended in air. I quit eating meat for a long time after that. I gradually added fish and poultry back into my diet when I was a little older. When I was in college I watched a Peta video and again went back to a vegetarian diet, then again came back to fish. When I was 21 I read the book Skinny Bitch and it totally was the push I needed to make a committed change. I never realized the health issues surrounding meat, eggs and dairy-- I just knew that eating animals never really set well with me and I knew I wouldn't touch a dead animal for food again. However, even after reading that I was like "Well, I could probably eat cheese once in awhile and still be healthy..." This is what brought me to the film Earthlings. I guess I knew deep down that there was cruelty behind all animal-based products and I needed to push myself even further to making a firm commitment to never exploit them again. This movie broke my heart and although contained footage worse than any horror movie I have ever seen, I loved it. It was the best educational tool and I went through and trashed everything in my house that had animal derived ingredients as soon as it was finished (after I was done sobbing).
My interests in becoming more of an activist are largely due to inspiration I've found through The World Peace & Yoga Jubilee- being surrounded by tons of compassionate, loving people and listening to some of the most amazing speakers has definitely been an inspiration for me to try harder to act for those who have no voice to speak for themselves. I have big plans to use my talents in art (photo, video and performance) to promote animal rights and I'm looking forward to getting started.
I feel like this is a good stopping place for my introduction post. You can follow my artwork on my facebook! :)
