Whale of a Time Inspirations

Welcome to Whale of a Time! I'm the founder of Whale of a Time. I call myself a citizen of the world as I feel that there are no boundries between me and my environment. My passion is in art and my heart lies with nature. As an artist and environmentalist I have developed this space for you where you can share your creative message and help raise awareness of our planet.

Come with me on a journey diving into the ultramarine crystal-clear water of the oceans. Here’s where the story of Whale of a Time began, in May 2007 during the Vote of the International Whaling Commission I was looking for answers and I found them in nature.

I had come across a video on YouTube about the slaughter of dolphins and whales by the Japanese, and I felt a deep sense of connection with these animals. To improve the way I felt about the world, I needed to do something about this issue. In order to be able to respect others, you have to respect your own feelings first and do something about what you feel strongly about.

My solution was to find a way of doing something positive about the issue and at the same time to help people to connect with other people who are sharing these views. I started by making a presence for animals on MySpace by registering 100 animal species at www.myspace.com/voiceofthewhale

I feel the purpose of life is to learn living in harmony with our planet. I’m proud of being the result of millions of years of evolution and coexistence. I know that I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for everything else around me. It’s really important for me to feel and express love, gratitude, freedom, harmony and peace. There are too many excuses in this world that we can make for all the destruction that we see around us. In fact it's all a reflection of ourselves. I’d like to inspire every person in this world to harness their creativity to do something about this. Humans are creative beings, and we need to tap into our creative energies and use it to build a society where harmony and balance is priority to live within all ecosystems on Earth. Mother nature is so wonderful and she provides us with everything that we need. We owe it to her and to protect our own species survival.

Whales and dolphins are perfect creatures and show great compassion for each other as well as their environment. They are having a whale of a time! Scientifically we don't know a great deal about these creatures. We only found out in 2007 that whales can reach high age up to 140 years and from Inuit's knowledge we know that whales live twice a human lifetime. These are scientific facts that were difficult to prove. The whale killed in 2007 had a harpoon from the 18th century inside his body. Are we right to kill creatures that outlive us humans by double the lifetime? Are we right to kill creatures that weigh 2,500 times more than we do? Are we right to kill creatures that sing the most beautiful songs of the sea? Are we right to kill beings that have a lower birth rate than we humans have? Is this sustainable? These ecosystems and species are irreplacable. Can we value life with money?

If we're going against nature we are going against our own nature. Japanese whale hunters slaughter our friends of the oceans for the so-called "scientific" research, but to really understand a subject fully one has to understand its feelings and purpose in life. What's the reason for murdering them? It hit me when I found out that the Japanese, Norwegian and Icelandic governments are pushing through to lift the ban on international whaling which has been in place since 1946 when an estimated 10% of most whale populations was all that remained after 200 years of slaughter which was threatening the very future existence of these giant mammals. It is frightening to imagine that the whales could disappear from our planet after having evolved over 18 million years, which is 13 millions of years longer than the human race has been around. What is our human intelligence for if not to put a stop to this and other inhumanities?

Many species have been perceived as endangered because of hunting, habitat loss and degradation, chemical and noise pollution, global climate change, unmonitored by-catches, accidents and disturbance. Will we go down in history as the species that managed to drive most other species to extinction and the planet to destruction? Or can we start reorganising ourselves to change our journey to a more positive and harmonious future? We need to think of ways in which we can change our attitude and behaviour for their and our benefit.

I realised that I could use my skills as an artist and envirionmentalist to run clay modelling workshops to raise awareness of endangered species. Clay is natural as it comes from the earth itself and is a good material to convey a message to connect with nature. Also artists in prehistoric times drew their inspiration from nature. The earliest known European cave paintings date from 32,000 years ago in Chauvet in southern France. These paintings tell us about animal species, hunting and predatory animals, human rituals and their perception of the world. Culture reflects the human condition and it is the platform of inspiration and creative development.

Dring the summer of 2007 I tried out the idea and organised clay modelling workshops during festivals including Sunrise, Glade, Big Green Gathering and Waveform Festival. I found that it was a great success with children and adults and the project started to expand and develop into a community of environmental artists. Whale of a Time was set to sail and get the message through.

In autumn 2007 the Whale of a Time Species Modelling Workshop was booked at the Earl’s Court Boat Show and was a huge success. Over 500 people used their artistic skills to sculpt dolphins, starfish, whales, octopi, basking sharks, great white sharks, a frog and even a penguin with a snorkel. Celebrity attendees included Hollywood actress Elle Macpherson and famous rower Dom Mee who crossed the Atlantic. It was then when I realised that running the workshops could have a huge impact not just during festivals but also in the city where the connection to nature is needed the most. This is when I started working on getting the workshop into youth and community centres across London.

Play Radio Caroline Interview live at the Earl's Court Boat Show 08

Grown out of the multicultural capital city in London is Whale of a Time that sprouts environmental thoughts into the atmosphere and creatively paints nature into our culture with the aim of growing back to our roots to a harmonious being with nature and the living organism - our blue planet Earth. Whale of a Time is sawing seeds running events and creative workshops on environmental issues in order to create an environmentally-conscious community.