On Their Minds

This last week there was an art exhibition at my school. I am not sure what grade level(s) the art belonged to, but it was on display in the area of the junior students (grade 7 and 8). As I casually looked at some of these works, I thought to myself that some of it was pretty decent, but the more I looked, the more involved some of this work became. A quick detour:

Some of you recall the big earthquake that happened in China earlier this year. For those of you who don’t, Ill sum it up: a 7.9 earthquake shook southwest China. It decimated towns, and killed over 60,000 people, and left hundreds of thousands missing, injured, and/or homeless. The earthquake was so strong that it was felt in Beijing and Taiwan. There are cities where over 80% of the buildings were destroyed. One of those cities happens to be near what is considered the capital of Southwest China, Chengdu. Chengdu is the city where I live. The city nearby that was demolished by the earthquake is named DuJiang.

DuJiang was one of the cities that had the highest death/injury tolls, and left the majority of structures there in ruins. Reconstruction is under way, but many of the people there are still living in temporary shelters.

Now, if your short term memory is not as bad as mine, you will recall that I began this post talking about art. Lets go back to that. As it turns out, a fair number of the students that attend my school call DuJiang home. The more I looked at some of the art, the more I realized what these children had been exposed to. Truly, this must have been a traumatizing experience for them, as is shown through their art. I cannot know the intensity of the emotions that lie beneath their skins, but I truly feel sympathy, as children should never have to live and see what some of them have lived and seen. It is a harsh reality in which we live, and children ARE exposed to such tragedy (daily in some places which are ravished by war). This week, I have decided to show you some of their art. I apologize for the bad copy art, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances. Click on the image to go to an album with more images. I’ve used flickr for this album, as it is easier to deal with when it comes to albums.