The History
In 1944, Heifers for Relief was founded by Dan West, who would later incorporate it to become Heifer International that same year. West was a member of the Church of the Brethren and would encourage farmers and church leaders to donate dairy cows to impoverish families in war-torn nations. After World War II, a group of men called the Seagoing Cowboys volunteered to accompany the donated livestock overseas using decommissioned cargo ships
The Idea
For this illustration, I wanted to tie in the religious and humanitarian aid beginnings of Heifer. I decided to go with imagery from classic Noah’s Ark paintings and reimagine the ark as one of the decommissioned cargo ships used by the Seagoing Cowboys. I researched some of the cargo ships used during that time period to accurately depict it in my painting and featured a couple of Seagoing Cowboys walking Heifer animals two by two through greener pastures.
