“I wish for the whole world to have strawberries and good food.”

We drove to Washington, DC to participate in the last day of the Tents of Hope interfaith weekend of prayer and action for Darfur, Sudan. Communities across America and abroad transformed canvas refugee tents with liberal doses of paint and love into unique works of art that express compassion and desire for peace for the people of Darfur and surrounding areas.

We walked out of the Air and Space Museum to view a magnificent panoramic sight. Over 350 tents, lined up like colorful soldiers, stretched down the length of the Smithsonian Mall grounds. One speaker noted, “We are only passing through, this world is our family.” Looking at the colorful tents, this is our family, this is our world, and these are our people. And our people live desperate lives.

Dr. Clements, “…so when genocide is happening and we stand idly by we are part of it.” Within view of the stage where the speakers and entertainers stood, is the Native American Museum. This is an American genocide. Three blocks south, stands the National Holocaust Museum. In Rwanda, I have written to four different women, one year each, all directly affected by that genocide. Kosovo is the same. And in each case of unfettered genocide the world stood idly by, taking action after thousands had died. 

It is difficult to imagine entire families living in these small make shift tents, which barely give protection against the savage winds and intolerable heat. Tiny patches of vegetables, scratched out in the parched soil, cooking fires flirting with the flimsy canvas, this is real life.

Many displaced, refugee camps have been systematically destroyed by Omar Al-Bashir’s forces. Each fallen sign represents a village that is gone, vanished, destroyed.

One citizens group is making efforts to provide solar cooking panels to the camps and teaching people how to use them. This helps to reduce the need for gathering firewood, which often results in the women and girls being caught and raped. The men do not go out for wood because they are killed, girls are sent because they are raped and not killed. ( I suppose that depends upon what you consider death.)

 At the end of the day the beautiful tents  were dismantled, wrapped and ready for shipping to Sudan. Money raised over the weekend was to help defray costs of shipping.

Visit www.savedarfur.org to learn more about what we can do to help our fellow human beings, who are unfortunate enough to live in Darfur. There is a web stream slide show of the entire Tents of Hope weekend. Also on this website you can sign an e-postcard. The goal is to collect one million signed postcards to present to President-elect Obama on April 26^th. President Obama will be 100 days into his presidency, the coalitions to stop genocide, will invite him to the Smithsonian Mall and give him the million post cards. You can do it on line if you would like to lend your voice.

It was such a humbling experience to walk among these colorfull tents, thinking of those who used their artistic license in a humanitarian way and those who would live their long-refugee days in them; focusing on this event (which shouldn’t be happening); putting a face to human rights advocats who have committed untold hours and dollars to help these people; watching the youth; our country is in good hands with this new generation of compassionate, vocal, intelligent younger adults. These young people will be the generation who provide strawberries for those who are repressed.

Let’s face it, children are amazing artists. They don’t deliberate over their swishing of color over expanses of white paper. They paint “in real time.”  Brushes, fingers, sponges and toes…there is no “perfect-have-to-own-it” painting implement. Subject matter simply arises from the creative well which hasn’t been diluted or tampered with.  Fear, oh me oh my, why painting is pure joy, what is there to be fearful of.  All that it takes for creative flow to move is opportunity, abundant supplies of paper and squishy brilliant paint. They say children’s art is “naïve” painting at its undiluted best. Naïve painting is simply painting from the soul where creativity bubbles in effervescent eruptions.  There is no plan, no agenda, and just pure expression.

I paint for children. The whimsical name, Lah de Dah Designs is meant to reflect the carefree nature of painting with children in mind. How does it stack up against the real thing? It doesn’t of course. My “mother-mind” has long ago evaporated from the inner, unfettered world of carefree color and imagination.

But I try. Why paint for children? Why not? It is pure fun to sit with a brush load of color and decide how to best put it on canvas hoping it adds to a child’s own imaginative pleasure. For me, art painted expressively for children is a form of storytelling, a painted narrative, a story without words. My goal: set enough of a stage and let a child tumble in.

Painting for children has become a very large, highly targeted and profitable market. I have had my opportunity with licensing art for children. I have painted countless murals, furniture and canvases for those who have the luxury of purchasing art for their child’s room. It has all been fine, a wonderful experience. But the pleasure really comes in the delight of painting without so many rules and expectations….painting from a child-like point of view.

Butterflies flirt and flit, skitter about taking a bit of dew and pollen here and there, no grand plan, no major ambition, just freedom, color, creation and touches of Butterfly Kisses along the way.  

Enjoy the latest paintings for children in my Lah de Dah Designs Collection. Originals for sale.
 www.sharon-furner.fineartamerica.com gives you the opportunity to order canvas reproductions.