The story of humans and wolves, and our eventual domestication of wolves into what we now know as dogs has been told time and again: a wolf joins a human at the warmth of a fire, or a human tosses a bit of their kill to a wolf. No matter how the bond came to be, we know wolves as something special to us – revered and respected by many – and we hold them close. Even closer we hold the bond for our pets, sharing our homes and even our beds with them.

But would you die for your animal? Would you lie beside them and take your final breaths together, if you could?

This pin set is the story of a person, hunted the same as their wolf, the animal they’ve forged a close kinship to over years of mutual respect, downed beside them, bleeding and mortally wounded. They live together, they eat together, they bleed together, and they draw their last pained breaths together.

The story doesn’t end there…

This pin set is an extension of my "wolf pack" art series - but in enamel pin form!

While many people look upon wolves with great fondness and respect, wolves have been often seen as vermin by others. The Gray Wolf, a native species to North America, was almost entirely eradicated from the United States by the 1970s until protections were placed to help rescue them from extinction. While federal protections are once again in place to protect wolves (Gray Wolves specifically have returned to the endangered species list, protecting them in most states), many people still adopt the opinion that wolves should be destroyed for various reasons including: protecting people or livestock, maintaining a lower population of wolves, even ridiculous reasons like “deer and elk hide from them.” Between 2011 and 2019, some 8,000 wolves have been killed.

For the 2021-2022 season, Montana reported 293 wolves killed, and 193 killed in their 2022-2023 season, with no estimation to the number of illegal and unreported kills. Scientists fear that the decrease in numbers of kills from season to season is indicative of population collapse – far from the cry of “wolves are so prolific they need culling” that some may argue. It is feared that the population of the gray wolf in Yellowstone itself may be destroyed due to these attitudes of hunters and politicians alike.

But it’s not just the gray wolf that suffers from state decisions to place bounties on their heads to try to reduce wolf populations by 90%. The Eastern timber wolf, Mexican gray wolf, red wolves, and coyote species suffer from the same fate.

Because of this, I plan to donate a portion of profits to Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, NY to help assist in the conservation of our native wolf species.

Welcome to Pintopia — a celebration of creativity and collaboration from a diverse group of artists collectively running enamel pin crowdfunding projects from March 28th - April 18th.

Freebie Cross-Collaboration Pins — All 125+ Pintopia creators have paired up with a fellow participant to create two unique pin designs together. If BOTH projects reach their initial funding goal, backers who support BOTH will get the TWO [2] cross-collab pins for FREE! One from each creator. The more pairs of Pintopia creators you support, the more free pins you will earn ✨

As part of Pintopia 2, I’m partnering with Seven of Publishing Goblin, LLC for two special collaboration pins. If you support both campaigns at any tier level, and both campaigns meet 100% of goal, you will not only receive the awesome pins you supported during the campaign, but you’ll also receive 2 more free pins – one from each campaign!

The first pin, the wolf card, designed by me will match the Alleyman Pin Set with the same enamel colors and gold plated metal. It will be roughly 1.75" tall, have 2 back posts, and a back stamp. The wolf card pin will be fulfilled and shipped by me if you back both projects and both are successfully funded!

The second pin, designed by Seven of Publishing Goblin, LLC to match the Hunted pin set, will be roughly 1.85" tall and have 2 back posts. The alleyman pin will be fulfilled and shipped by Seven if you back both projects and both are successfully funded!

So, what are you waiting for? Go check out Alley: The Alleyman Pin Set and back it so you can get those sweet, sweet free collab pins!

Unlike Kickstarter, funds raised on BackerKit do not include shipping fees. Shipping will be collected at the same time as addresses, and will be subject to the USPS rates at that time. I am expecting shipping will be about $6 for a set, and will do my best to keep shipping costs as low as possible.

This is my third pin crowdfunding campaign, my fifth pin design project, and my first time on the BackerKit platform. I’m excited to work through all of the different tools to provide you the very best crowdfunding experience I can.

As with any pin campaign, dealing with the manufacturing process can be problematic at times. There are occasions where manufacturers may be slow to respond or slow to ship items, which can sometimes slow down the act of actually receiving your pins. This is one of the biggest challenges with ordering any sort of pin.

Another potential problem can be that you never quite know what quality of pins you may receive. Sometimes, you get 95% A grade pins, and sometimes you get less. I will do my best to provide all BackerKit backers with A grade pins, but cannot guarantee that all pins will be A grade. I will be certain to let backers know beforehand if the pins they will be receiving may be more B grade worthy.

The kinds of stories that don’t end well – those are the types of stories that captivate Aimee Cozza as an illustrator most of all. Aimee is driven to visually depicting these moments of tenseness, anxiety, and dejection in a way that is palpable to the viewer. Her most common subjects are sci-fi and fantasy depictions: space, angels, creatures, and what lurks in the dark.

Inexplicably, she is drawn to the romance of the dark-beautiful. This theme unifies characters and worlds of her pieces, usually through stylistic choice, color, and other frequently used themes of duality — light versus dark, sharp versus soft, loud versus quiet, protagonist versus antagonist. It is in these contrasts that she finds the best stories lie and can be told. Frequently, she explores worldly concepts of femininity and masculinity, anarchy and structure, and of being hurt, either physically or mentally. She also explores mental health issues such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and trichotillomania. In exploring these themes she hopes to help society question what they know as good or bad, and understand there is more than one side to any story.

Aimee Cozza is a 2012 New England College (formerly New Hampshire Institute of Art) graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in illustration. She works digitally, traditionally, and within a mix of the two across a variety of physical mediums, but never with the help of AI.

Visit my portfolio, or follow me on Bluesky, Tumblr, Mastodon, Instagram, or Facebook!