Roulette Peace

Confusion continues with the placing of images on this site, but instead of changing the order of these images I seem to be typing above them. Always more to learn!

So, the oil pastels are having a workout in a very old sketchbook...I think one of the drawings is by one of the sons. I am being reminded right now why it is important to sign work...maybe I can put this reminder into effect when I finish a drawing....sometimes I don't know that I am finished til I put the drawing down and return to it later for a more distant look.

Exploring what oil pastels can do that other media can't....experimenting with shapes and boundaries. Feeling sadness about what is happening in the world where people make boundaries and others crash them, where control is an issue and power is expressed by brutality and force, where people are killed shopping in a market for women's clothing --women and children killed--for what? Why does this seem so senseless to me?

I have had the honor to meet Faiza through her wonderful paintings which she shared on flickr.

More than her paintings, she shared her feelings and her generous support of other artists. She also shared some of her family story and now she shares her fear and her sadness about what is happening to her family and friends, her neighbors, and her country. Her help "maid" was recently killed while trying to rescue her own family. Her two daughters are questioning why they are home from school, but schools are closed. Faiza lives in Islamabad and she is pleaing for help to save her country. What can I do to help? Does anyone know a path to the end of the mideast struggle? Is there a way to see peace restored to these embattled lands?