In Honor of His Aunt, an Australian Farmer Creates a Heart Symbol using Sheeps

A sheep farmer who was unable to attend his aunt's funeral due to a lockdown in New South Wales has paid tribute to her memories with the ultimate tribute: a love heart made of sheep. Ben Jackson, from Guyra, was unable to travel to Brisbane to be with his Aunt Debby in her dying moments following a two-year battle with cancer that began at the outbreak.

“Unfortunately, she didn’t make it,” Jackson said. “At those times of grief, you feel really helpless, you don’t know what to do, what to say, Especially in these Covid times, no one can prepare for that border closure grief, not being able to say cheerio or be there when she passes. It’s pretty difficult.”

Jackson said he got the concept for the heart while out feeding his sheep.“supplementary tucker” as they are “quite pregnant and need a bit of extra TLC”.

Jackson stated it took him "three or four" tries to make the heart, with his first attempts being less than satisfactory.

“The first time I tried it looked like the shit emoji, I tell you, and whilst my Aunty Deb had a good sense of humour, that wasn’t exactly what I was going for,” he said. After creating the heart, he captured the video with a drone and transmitted it to his family in Brisbane, where it was layered on Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge over Troubled Water and played at his aunt's funeral.

“When I saw [the final product] I would be the first to admit that there was plenty of waterworks,” Jackson said. “It was very lovely to have it as part of a sendoff. It was certainly something that she would have loved and absolutely cherished.”

Jackson said he began creating his sheep paintings during a previous drought when he had to feed his sheep every day from the back of his flatbed truck. Advertisement He quickly discovered that he could draw shapes in the terrain and that the sheep would congregate around him. He said, "And they haven't forgotten yet."

Jackson has built other forms in the past, such as a gigantic ABC logo, but he underlined that this time's tribute was purely for Aunty Deb. “I completely get I’m not Robinson Crusoe, I’m not the only person who's doing it tough with lockdown and borders and Covid,” he said. “It’s a very, very challenging time. And knowing my Aunty Deb, if this sheep art – if it brought a smile to even one person’s face, she would be a very proud aunty.”

Source: James Jackson The Guardian