REVERS-LAB
Sicily, Italy
Revers-Lab is a featured artist in the Vegan Storyteller Gallery of Vegan ARTivists.
Revers-Lab confronts the meat industry through her vegan ARTivism. She shows us the suffering of animals and the sick condition of society.
But her artwork also depicts a better world, a simpler and more compassionate world, where people have a profound respect for the earth and its non-human animals.
I went vegan when I learned to love a rodent
Since the day her grandmother put the first colored pencil in her hand at age three, Revers-Lab has never stopped drawing.
She began studying at the Rome Academy of Art when she was 20 years old and shared a room with a hamster. She enjoyed letting him roam free and observing his behavior.
“He recognized his name. He played with me, and he loved to cuddle. That tiny 50 grams of hamster showed me that there are no differences between human and non-human animals. He taught me the meaning of love,” Revers-Lab said.
People speak of freedom as if it only applies to humans. We talk of freedom but bring our children to the zoo. We speak of freedom while sitting in an armchair with a book of philosophy in hand and a canary singing in a cage. We speak of freedom while chewing meat. We speak of freedom and wave our flags. We speak of freedom … what about the animals?
My art promotes animal liberation and the vegan lifestyle
Revers-Lab was vegetarian before attending the art academy in Rome. Today she is a fruit-based ethical vegan who likes to keep her body healthy and her spirit free. She became vegan after awakening to the love of a hamster.
Since then, she has put her talents toward the service of the weakest — the animals — to show the hidden injustices, atrocities of society, and horrific conditions of their lives.
Her paintings with antispecieist messages put her in touch with the vegan community in Italy. She started posting her drawings online. The “Girl with the Heart” was one of the first to go viral within the online Italian vegan community.
The popularity of the artwork set her on a permanent path as a vegan ARTivist (activist artist). Her artwork influences and inspires people.
It’s not uncommon for Revers-Lab’s illustrations to appear on people’s bodies as inked tattoos and printed T-shirt designs. She has received messages from followers who have adopted a vegan lifestyle after stumbling across her illustrations.
“It’s rewarding for me to know that my art is fighting oppression and growing the vegan movement. My biggest dream is to see a vegan world,” Revers-Lab said.
I remember the first time I looked into the eyes of a 7-day-old calf saved from slaughter. Looking into his enormous eyes of innocence, I realized that there is no forgiveness for us humans. The evil we are doing is too great for us to be acquitted.
I oppose every practice of torture against any living being. This value inspired me to draw these pieces of artwork. I want a better world and a new concept of beauty that does not deprive living beings of their lives.
I want a reverse world where animals are liberated
“I like to use the name Revers because it makes me think about a reverse world that I dream about where animals are liberated,” she said.
Revers-Lab studied theater scenography at the Academy of Art in Rome and worked as assistant production designer and seamstress in theater. But visual art became her life. She works as an illustrator and painter and makes jewelry and other handicrafts using recycled materials.
Art is her primary form of expression, her safety net, and her daily work. Her art is often seen in association with street actions and other activist campaigns.
For example, she designed the illustration for this year’s Worldwide Vegan Chalking Night, which will be held in more than 250 cities around the world on September 3, 2021. Her friend Ismael Garcia Martin is the founder and organizer of the event. He is from Spain.
A life forced in a cage is not life. Laboratories, circuses, zoos, factory farms … they are all traps where animals become objects at the mercy of Man.
I'm a vegan ARTivist who wants change
Revers-Lab works to continually improve her techniques in acrylic, oil, watercolor, pencil, and digital media. She also likes to experiment artistically with plastic, marble, and paper mache.
Aside from art, her passions are animals, travel, discovering new cultures and new fruits, and increasing her portfolio of art that showcases veganism and animal liberation.
“I’m a vegan ARTivist who wants change. In this historical moment of great planetary crisis, art must scream loudly and force us to look at what we are doing. We have taken possession of the entire planet and are destroying everything around us. I want a simpler and more compassionate life for all species,” she said.
Although I have painted brutal scenes out of ethical necessity, in most of my work I prefer to depict messages of harmony and love. I like to show the other side of the coin, the one we have not considered -- the one of peace.
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Vegan ARTivist Pascal Salmon
Artistic expression can reach the depths of our souls in a way that words cannot. Through their art, artists expose us to feelings and struggles and remind us of the power we hold to change the world. Artists featured in Vegan Storyteller’s Gallery of Vegan ARTivists respond to veganism’s impact on people, animals, and the environment.
Read next ARTivist Pascale Salmon speaks for the hundreds of billions of animals that are slaughtered globally each year for human food.
