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What can a war artist do?

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A photo is quickly taken, sold to a news agency, reacted to in passing by millions, and passed over. A drawing takes far longer in time and space, to contemplate the condition.

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Our children are the same for us the world over.  This woman works hard on the land and in her household.  She holds it all together and carries the weight of water from the well. She gave birth to her babies in pain and crying out and relief;  they are her life, each one.  Her husband may or may not be a strong, caring father. Now their homestead and village is shattered:  they wait homeless on the waterless mountain.  She is vulnerable.  In a war zone you do not know who is friend or rapist - like an earthquake.  Her children are hungry and there is no roof.  There is the tearing pain inside her belly, or anxiety and shock:  the soft smell of her baby:  the bewildered bravery of her daughter as a journalist's lens draws near.  They are rounded up like goats by unknown herders.

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She is my sister.  I can only reach out by drawing her, to touch, that she may feel somehow, somewhere that someone knows.  Send her strength ... even now, wherever she is.

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He's a father, and they lost their mother.  The children want to help him, and don't know how.  On their terrifying journey to survival, it is an artist's way to support and wish them well.  Loaded on a donkey they ride off into uncertain night, the first desolate steps through quicksand, of an astounding courage.

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It is humiliating to have your home torn away and to ride with all you can carry on the donkey to God knows where?

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The newspaper said:  She has a badly needed drink.   While I was drawing her - and it took me nearly all day - I wondered about what blinds a man or boy, to kill or hurt this beautiful child in the name of fundamentalism.

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I singled these children out from a crowd in Gaza - two brothers and a sister.  They watch perhaps the bombing of their street - evacuated.  A rope to hold back the crowd, threads together each child's parentless abyss ... the grownups' broken world.

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This was our Maria Relief Fund Christmas card some years ago - a refugee camp anywhere and the Star.

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The late Valerie Brooks gave 17 years of her life to support children in distress.   See under Projects in this website. A network of friends and supporters helps to support each needy family in Chortkiv village, Ukraine, and to establish an English class and educational opportunities for their children.   It is an extended family.

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Many large charities lose their definition in administrative overheads.  Smaller charities operate in a grass roots way through human contact and serendipity.  The Maria Relief Fund assists children in need, wherever we may reach them in the world. It is as essential to give hope and support to a family struggling with poverty, as it is to relocate families and children displaced by regimes and war.

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This is Kristina, a talented young girl whom we also sponsor.  Some of her drawings are on this website - scroll down to "Childrens' Art" on the homepage.   She lives with her granny and grandad.

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Here are now some children I drew many years ago, at their schools, as part of a project.  They are not refugees nor (I hope) in difficulty, but I wish them health and happiness, wherever they live, and whomever they grew up to be.