Bloody Xmas: Have a Bloody Christmas

This deer preservation postcard design: Bloody Christmas takes traditional Christmas iconography such as red trinkets or candy canes and meshes them together into a project meant to encourage the preservation of deer. The piece relies not only on strong color associations but also draws inspiration from the world of animation. 

In John Berger's essay, he compares Bacon's work to popular Disney's narratives. He mentions the brutality of Francis Bacons’ work and how it tends to depict the dark sides of society in unflinchingly gruesome detail.  In the magical world of Disney however, they will use cartoonish styles and create metaphors of reality. After mulling it over in my mind, I have decided to take a similar approach. I have chosen to use a cartoon-like style to help make my work more accessible to audiences. I have chosen to use seemingly harmless archetypes that are usually associated with Christmas and using them to mask the conversation that is really being a place—which is hunting of deer for both sport and pleasure. 

In the process, I am also able to use this platform as a way to include pertinent information regarding animal preservation and to help inform my audience. It is meant to be a sobering portrait of the impact mankind is having on the diminishing local landscape. The celebratory feelings that are inherent in the Christmas season will be contrasted in vivaciously violent hues of red, and help to be a symbolic reminder of the importance of ecological conservation and protection.

Red is a color of extremes; it is the color of passionate love and seduction. It is also a color that evokes feelings of danger, adventure, violence, or even rage. In his book, The Primary Colors, author Andrew Theroux comments on the effect of red on the human body saying that “Upon merely seeing the color red, the metabolic rate of a humans supposedly increases by 13.4%”. As far as art is concerned, color can have an impactful affect on the human body. This is the reason that color is so important to me as a design concept. In my project, color red isn’t just meant to help audiences conjure up images of Christmas. It is also meant to graphically represent the intrinsic ethical problem that is raised when you realize that hunting season coincides perfectly with the holiday season. Red represents passion, but passion is a word that can mean different things depending on the context. For some it is the color of wine and lust—but to me it is the dark crimson stain of blood on the human conscious.