Is Painting Racist?

Recently a page came up in my newsfeed articulating quite well that veganism is racist. Of course, this is an interesting argument, and it stems from the idea that in order to grow and harvest produce certain populations are exploited. Cash crops like quinoa that are a staple of diets in tropical climes, sustaining the hungry population, are now stripped off the earth and sent to Waitrose. All over the world non whites are paid a pittance to harvest our everyday essentials like tea, coffee, cocoa and sugar. Its hard to tell whether "Fairtrade" is a real thing or a marketing gimmick, but the way of supplying our groceries has not changed much since colonial times. This was the argument that the page espoused, however, it may have been charged with social justice and identity politics (such is life online), but it originated in the US. Mexicans, Afro Caribbeans and other People Of Colour have long been exploited over there in the growing of tobacco, cotton and foodstuffs, but in the UK things are slightly different, although still racist, it is more to do with other kinds of vulnerable cheap labour that can exploited, such as Eastern Europeans: white, but maybe less so..
So, if our staples in the Western World are produced by the exploitation of The Other, where does that leave painting?
Even before we get onto the subject of cotton and its story, lets think about the pigments that came about when artists were still painting on plaster and wooden board.
Before the advent of petrochemicals and the manufacturing processes that bring about our modern day paint colours, pigments were derived from minerals and exotic animals. The cochineal insect and the precious Lapis Lazuli blue stone are not to be found in this country, so where did they come from? Who was searching for the beetles and gathering them up to be turned into red paint? What poor souls were in the mines in dreadful conditions hacking away lumps of Lapis and Gold for artists to embellish their religious iconography? I would guess native and poor populations were exploited, and I hope to find out more about the provenance of pigments.
Now lets talk Cotton.. Cotton has been problematic historically and it is well documented. The harvesting of cotton by black slaves still leaves an ugly social scar to this day. But whence the canvas and calico painters used as a surface? , for that matter, does linen come from?
Whether to decorate or document, the surface and the pigments have a hidden story all of their own, and artists were either blissfully or willingly to confront this in their work.
Now of course, we face a different dilemma. In order that we have paint, we must have pigments, and if you are using acrylic, plastic body. Much of these ingredients come from the petrochemical industry. Oil paintings may have a vegetable oil carrier, but what are the manufacturing and cultivating processes of this bulk of plant based oil? We know that intensive farming and the petrochemical industry contribute to global warming, and the effects of climate change on poorer less resourced communities, so is painting still a viable, ethical practise for the artist in the 21st century?

For Those Who Have Been Blessed By God

I thought long and hard before posting this, in face it has taken me a few years. Partly because I have been procrastinating, or been too busy running workshops, making new work, and networking; but mainly the reason was I do not wish to offend.
You have to be very careful what you post on the internet these days. People will have a visceral personal reaction to something you might consider an interesting dialogue, or even incocuous. In the 21st Century everyone belongs to a minority, whether it be right wing, left wing, religious, atheist, vegan, disabled, neurodiverse, black, brown or whatever. Everyone has the internet directly at their fingertips, living in the here and now, on the edge of emotion, with behavourial fillters swept away by anonymity.. allowing passions to rage free. The equivalent of throwing cat shit over a neighbours fence.
So, with all that in mind, and because I am a Socially Aware individual and artist, although some extremists would dispute that (they are basically playground sneerers and bullies at the end of the day) I am going to state my intent and reflection for this ceramic creation as follows:

For Those Who Have Been Blessed By God
This was a title that came to me actaully after making these ceramic sculptures.
They are irregular, fragile, insecure. Sometimes they fell apart during construction and the stress of handling, gravity, and exposure to extremes (high temperatues in the kiln, sudeen heat and dryness).
Mostly they are imperfect. And organic, with their own construction, much like neural networks building up or a body developing from fetus.
In society, especially in those religious groups, people with healthy happy children or great careers and household call themselves "blessed". They have the upper hand. If they have succeeded and everything is perfect, they publicly thank an imaginary diety, but really they are boasting. This is not just a 21st century phenomenon, it has reared its head in literature throughout the ages. To be perfect, and to be wealthy, is to be favoured and endowed. Sinners suffer poverty and illmess through their own doings. Its as prevalent an attitude today as it has ever been. Does this person deserve state assistenace..?
On the otherside of the spectrum are those who are parents or sufferers themselves of disability or mental defiecency. Those (like myself) who are "imperfect", "broken", "wrong". They may identify as blessed bacause of the the quirks that their state of mental or physical difference endows them with. Parents of Downs Syndrome children talk of their warmth and affection. Sufferers of ADHD talk of their amazing ideas, people with Autism often have gifts of mathematics or drawing. Depressives have deep insight. Anxious people will empahise and bond with the vulnerable and lonesome.
So this work celebtate all that is "WRONG" or "imperfect" within humanity.
It is to tell people who are perfect and flawless and blessed that we imprefrct and flawed can also be blessed. And they have to shre the world with us, see us for what we are, all higgedlt piggedly, whther they like it or not. We irregylars are there, and we will be recognised, not euthenised.