When Pictures Tell Stories

When I visited a Burmese Refugee
Camp during my visit to Thailand in March, we brought ‘art supplies’ and each
person at the children’s home received a sketch booklet and shared colored
pencils and watercolors. None of them had ever seen watercolors before, but
once they watched a short demonstration, it took only seconds for them to start
creating their own pieces of art.

 

As they began to draw and
experiment with the watercolors I noticed something… each one was drawing
pictures of their homeland, Burma. There were no unicorns, aliens, robots, or
even pictures of bunny rabbits. They were all working on landscapes.

 

The next day we talked to them
about their art. First let me tell you that these youth are amazingly talented! They drew what they remembered, as one girl said, ‘these are memories’ – a
beautiful sunset, fruit trees full of color and animals (‘that soldiers cut
down in hopes to starve us’), a village hiding in the mountains (hiding from
the army that is trying to kill them). These beautiful pictures each have
stories behind them… stories that belong to these youth. Stories that have forever
changed their lives, but not stolen their hope.

 

A head of security for the
Refugee Camp happened to be with us when we let the youth do art, so he
received a sketch booklet as well. His first picture was of a rainbow and
purple stick figures… his second was of a black heart that was pierced with an
arrow… I wonder what led him to go from something so cheerful to so dark, and
what the story is behind his bleeding heart. We didn’t hear his stories, but
his pictures began to tell them.

 

 

Stay tuned… the next blog is
going to give you a better picture of what the creative arts has to do with my
plans in Thailand.