About the artist

Siân is a self directed artist from South Wales, with a passion for nature and conservation. She began linocut print making during the first lockdown. Between 2016 and 2018 Siân spent 2 years living in Zambia with her husband and 3 children. Not only did this time inspire her creatively it also opened her eyes to the ongoing atrocities of poaching. Pangolins are the most fascinating prehistoric mammals; it is predicted they have been around for 80 million years!

Yet these beautiful gentle creatures are threatened to the point of extinction because of poaching exacerbated by the demand for their scales, used in traditional Chinese medicines, and their meat which is still considered a delicacy. Pangolins are the most trafficked animals in the world. The Pangolins natural defence instinct is to curl up into a near impenetrable ball, however the very thing that is meant to protect them renders them defenceless against poachers"

Instagram: @snaqsnap

About the art

This piece is a mixed media artwork comprising 2 large Linocut works overlaid with collage of hand painted mulberry paper, acrylic, watercolour and gold leaf embellishment. I wanted my piece to symbolise the fragile nature of these beautiful ancient mammals by contrasting the curled pangolin in the spiral of a fossilised ammonite. Thus portraying the delicate thread between the pangolins future existence vs it spiralling towards extinction.