Horse blanket 

Sue Coe’s “Horse Blanket” is an evocative oil painting, using traditional materials to address decidedly untraditional subject matter. The image is heavily worked, with visible brushstrokes that lend a tangible texture to the scene. Coe has focused in on the dark underbelly of spectacle and entertainment, and the price paid by animals exploited for human amusement. The materials contribute to the oppressive feeling, with thick layers of paint suggesting the weight of the horse’s burden, both literal and symbolic. The circus animals appear as commodities, their suffering masked beneath layers of paint and artifice. Coe’s raw, expressive approach reminds us that artmaking itself is a form of labor. By foregrounding the making process, she draws attention to the larger systems of production and consumption that sustain industries like the circus. "Horse Blanket" underscores the capacity of art to expose uncomfortable truths about our relationship with animals and the economic forces that shape their lives.