Meet our Team
Leigh Sanders
FOUNDER, DIRECTOR & PROJECT MANAGER
Born and raised in South Africa, Leigh now lives with her Catalan husband on the beautiful Costa Brava, where the light and colors of the Mediterranean never fail to inspire her and make her soul sing. Leigh is the co-creator of the book ‘Art of Compassion’, a coffee table vegan art book in aid of Veganuary. Leigh’s true passions are this ever-growing project and her own creative expressions. Her abstract paintings are influenced by color, light, and movement—depicting what she feels rather than what she sees.
Helen Barker
UK TEAM LEADER & EVENT COORDINATOR
Vegan since 1996, and a creative for her whole life, Helen began using art to enhance her animal rights activism in 2016. Through illustration, painting, sculpture and writing, she aims to change people’s understanding of their societally indoctrinated, speciesist views towards our relationship with other animals. Art is many things to Helen. Fun, relaxing, absorbing and distracting. It is also an incredibly powerful tool, involving the viewer in a deep, introspective way, and as such can have more impact than some other forms of social justice activism. Creating art to illustrate her greatest passion, the liberation of all others from oppression, pushes Helen to constantly improve, and brings her great fulfilment.
Jawn Beach
US TEAM LEADER & EVENT COORDINATOR
Jawn creates artwork & music under the moniker of ((suuneater)) which is a way for him to manifest & channel a message of peace between humans, animals & nature. He’s thankful every day to be alive & his personal mission is to help mend the physical, mental & spiritual wounds that have separated us from the true & divine purpose of life. He hopes to build a better world through sharing the wisdom of living in harmony with all sentient beings. He’s grateful to be able to organize AOCP events and directly help vegan organisations while being able to do this alongside so many other incredibly righteous artists is a blessing.
Jessica Goodall
WRITER & DESIGNER
Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Jessica is a nomad at heart and thrives on the curiosity, creativity, connection, and compassion she finds in living simply and wandering the world slowly. A lifelong lover of animals and a believer in the power of art to effect change, she discovered the animal advocacy art community several years ago when seeking a gentle yet expressive way to fight for animals. Jessica is also the writer and artist behind Goodall Creative—a space focused on contemporary art for the good of all, including her own conscious and creative musings.
Francisco Atencio
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Francisco Atencio lives in Mendoza, Argentina. By trade he’s a computer engineer but an artist and philosopher at heart. His hobbies include studying, drawing, painting, reading, doing yoga, enjoying life and learning from everything around him. Francisco is the founder of the ‘Arte Animal’ Project, which aims to spread animal rights through art. He’s happily married to Leticia, and has two beautiful children, Santiago and Sol. Francisco designed our AOCP logo with the intention to integrate concepts like compassion, love, equality into a simple shape in a pop art style. All kinds of animals are represented in the logo; the cow (farmed animals), the elephant (hunting & slavery), the rabbit (experimentation and testing) and the dophin (fishing and slavery).
Philip McCulloch-Downs
UK EVENT VOLUNTEER
Philip is a vegan artist based in Somerset in the United Kingdom. He’s spent all his adult life exploring and refining his creative skills and has learned how to process the varied experiences of everyday life through his art, video-making, novels and poetry. This body of work has formed a visual diary of his life. In 2014 he painted a portrait of animal rights photographer Jo-Anne McArthur, and the overwhelming reaction to this on social media changed his life literally overnight. Since then, his artwork has entered the world of veganism/animal rights, and his collection of animal rights artwork (‘Moving Images’) is a continuing attempt to bring hidden truths to light and to visualise uncomfortable concepts with accuracy and compassion.
Jayne Yilmaz
UK EVENT VOLUNTEER
Jayne (JayneyArt) is a vegan artist living in London. She became vegan in 2014 after watching Cowspiracy and discovering the harmful impact of animal agriculture on the environment. Since then, Jayne has used her art to raise public awareness about the beauty of all animals as sentient beings with a right to live. She joined The Art of Compassion Project in 2017 and enjoys creating art which inspires compassion in people towards all animals at the same time as helping to raise funds for vegan animal causes.
Revers Lab
ITALIAN EVENT VOLUNTEER
Revers Lab’s art speaks of animals, their suffering and the meat industry, the sad and ill condition of society, but also about dreams…dreaming about a more comfortable world and profound respect towards the Earth… Basically, just (re)thinking a simple world. She studied Theatre Scenography at the Academy of Art in Rome and during the winter season she works there as an assistant production designer and seamstress, she works as an illustrator and is an an activist. Revers Lab loves painting and improving the different techniques she works in. She likes experimenting with different techniques and various materials.
Pascale Salmon
FRENCH EVENT VOLUNTEER
An activist for animal rights, Pascale thinks antispeciesist and vegan art allows the artist to give a voice to billions of animals and the possibility to touch people. The basis of her paintings is made of human silhouettes that contain messages and symbols. It’s like an introspection of the human brain, as regards the relation to the animal. Pascale tries to infuse emotions and meaning. She raises the issue of morality, justice, ethis, freedom, peace and asks the question of the consistency between our thoughts, words and actions. It can be seen as an opportunity to convey the idea of animal liberation and contribute to society in an emancipatory way. Art may be a catalyst for change towards a better world …
Evelyn Suttle
IRISH EVENT ORGANISER
Evelyn Suttle studied at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dublin, Ireland. Her artwork primarily focuses on watercolour portraiture addressing issues such as animal rights, environmentalism and human rights. Her work has been exhibited throughout Europe, the USA and China. She has worked with The Art of Compassion Project on charity exhibitions in Spain and Ireland.
Sara Sechi
UK & ITALIAN EVENT VOLUNTEER
Sara Sechi is a young italian vegan artists who is passionate about animal rights and ethical, sustainable living. Sara studied Fine Art and Design in Italy, she’s been vegan since 2012 and since joining the Art of Compassion Project in 2016, she uses art as a form of activism for animal rights. Working mostly in digital and at times with traditional mediums, her art varies in moods, going from depicting ‘farm animals’ next to ‘companion animals’ in the sweet ‘Find the Difference’, to more dark and challenging scenes like ‘Meat is Murder’, with the aim of exposing how disconnected we are to the suffering and violence behind the products that we consume and how conflicting and hypocritical our relationship with non-human animals is.
